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What Lies Beyond the Grave? 


j/ By 
WILLIAM’ EVANS, Pu. D., D.D. 
Author of ‘The Coming King,’ ‘'£pochs in the Life of 
Christ,’’ ‘‘The Book of Genesis,’’ ‘*The Books of 
the Pentateuch,”’ etc. 


New York CHICAGO 
Fleming H. Revell Company 


LONDON AND EDINBURGH 


Copyright, MCMxXxVI, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 


Dedicated 
to my Friend 
COLONEL A, E. HUMPHREYS 
Whose Christian Life 
and 
Generous Benefactions 


have been an untold blessing to 
multitudes 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2022 with funding from 
Princeton Theological Seminary Library 


https://archive.org/details/afterdeathwhatthO0evan_0O 


FOREWORD 


HE subject of the Future Life and Conditions 
beyond the Grave is always a most interesting 
one tous all. It is, of course, of particular in- 
terest to those who have loved ones ‘‘beyond the veil.’’ 
We are constantly being asked questions regarding life 
and conditions ‘‘over there.’’ Are our loved ones con- 
scious? Do they know what is transpiring on this earth? 
If they know earthly conditions how ean they be happy? 
Shall we know each other in heaven? How can a mother 
be happy in heaven if she knows that one of her children 
is in ‘‘the outer darkness’’? And there are a hundred 
more such questions that are being continually asked. Is 
there an answer? We feel confident that there is an- 
swer sufficient in the Scriptures to give us comfort in 
our sorrow, reasonable ground for our hope, and suffi- 
cient spiritual strength to bear the bereavements of life 
as they may come to us. God has not left us in utter 
darkness with regard to existence beyond the grave. 
Some things have been revealed to us. A knowledge of 
such things is to be had by the study of the Bible touch- 
ing these matters. Differences of opinions and inter- 
pretation there will always be, but unanimity sufficient 
touching the essential things we may count on if we 
prayerfully and devoutly meditate on the Word of God. 
It is our prayer that this volume may be the means of 
healing many a broken heart, binding up many a crushed 
spirit, and bringing joy and gladness in the contempla- 
tion of the things which the Father has prepared for 
them that love Him. 
W. KE. 


Los Angeles. 


Pain 
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CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTORY: THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSIDER- 
ING THE FUTURE LIFE / 4 ;. ° 


THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION REGARDING THE 
FUTURE LIFE . ‘ my ‘ : ‘ ‘ 


WuaT Is DEATH? . : ‘ ‘ ; ‘ . 
Wuat Is DEATH? (Continued) . , : : 
How DEATH COMES TO MEN , ‘ : . ° 
THE INTERMEDIATE STATE . A ; . : 
THE RESURRECTION , é : . : 

THE JUDGMENTS ‘ . . . ; ° : 
FUTURE RETRIBUTION ‘ : , : ° ° 
THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS . : ° 





I 


INTRODUCTORY: THE IMPORTANCE OF CON- 
SIDERING THE FUTURE LIFE 


O subject, perhaps, can more seriously engage 
N the attention of man than that which deals 

with his future state. The millions that have 
died, that now live, and shall live after we are gone— 
all these are, naturally, keenly interested in what is pos- 
sible for us to know of that ‘‘land of far distances’’* to- 
wards which all humanity is journeying. 

What happens to a soul when it leaves the body that 
has encased it for years, and starts on that great adven- 
ture into the ‘‘Near Hereafter’’ or the ‘‘Far Here- 
after’’? Does it suffer, or is it happy? Does it know 
what is transpiring on this earth? Is it cognizant, in 
any degree, of earth conditions? Does it recognize other 
souls over there which also have made the ‘‘Great Ad- 
venture’’? Is that soul embodied or disembodied? Just 
what condition of life and existence does the soul enter 
into when it makes its appearance on that other shore? 
Surely one who is destined to make that journey sooner 
or later, inevitably, whether he will or no, and yet mani- 
fests no interest whatever in the matter of the soul’s 
future destiny, must be dead indeed to the things which 
are highest, best, most far-reaching, and that will concern 
him throughout the endless ages of eternity. 

There is another reason why men should manifest a 
keen interest in this subject. Most, if not all of us, have 
loved ones who have started on that long journey into 


4Isa, 33:17 CR. V. margin): 
Ld. 


12 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN 4 


the future life. It would be strange, indeed, should we 
not be interested in knowing, as far as we can, what has 
happened to them, what is their condition, and what 
engages their attention, interest and activity in the great 
Hereafter, would it not? Could it be shown that they 
are conscious of what we on earth are doing and that our 
manner of life may be causing them pleasure or pain— 
would not that make some difference in the part we are 
playing in the great drama of life? Is there to be a 
‘“second chance’’ after death for those who have missed 
Christ in their earth life, or is this earthly pilgrimage 
man’s sole probationary period? Would not a knowl- 
edge of this question lead us to make the most of our 
probationary and comparatively brief stay on the earth? 

There is also a personal reason why our future destiny 
should intensely grip our interest. We ourselves may, at 
any moment, be called upon to make this great adventure 
into that other life. ‘‘Who knoweth the day of his 
death?’’ ‘‘In the midst of life we are in death.’’ How 
_- far is it called to the grave? Not far for any one of us. 
Every step we have taken from the cradle has been to- 
wards the grave; and every step we shall take from this 
moment will bring us nearer to the day of our death. 
On train, in auto, on steamship, on land or seas, walking, 
riding, in the pulpit, at the bench, by the counter, in 
the pew, at your desk, by your own fireside the call may 
come to you to lay down this mortal coil and take your 
journey into that far-away land. It is not a matter of 
uncertainty to any one of us as to whether or not he 
shall die. ‘‘It is appointed unto man once to die.’’? 
That is his destined end: ‘‘For this is the end of all 
men.’’* 


* Heb. 9: 27. * Eccles. 7: 2. 


INTRODUCTORY 13 


Should the Lord tarry ‘ every soul of man on the earth 
now breathing will some day breathe his last. This is 
not a matter of debate. It is an accepted fact and every 
man knows it for himself. And it is the recalling of 
this fact that should bring every man to the place of 
serious thought. Every pain and ache we have is a fore- 
runner of death; it reminds us that we are mortal and 
subject to decay and death. Every gray hair is an in- 
dication of that decay which one day will cause the 
activities of the body in which the soul lives, moves, and 
has its being, to cease to function. Every time the 
funeral procession on the street passes us, or we see the 
erépe hanging on the door, or across its threshold we see 
a casket carried, or the postman hands us an envelope | 
with a black border, we are strangely and strikingly 
reminded that the day will come when the coffin lid will 
close over our face and hide forever from our view this 
world in which we have lived; that we too shall be carried 
to our long rest in the tomb and that life will be going 
on in this old world without us. Every man knows this 
for himself, 


The time of this event may be and is, uncertain, but the, 
fact of it is certain and sure as that we now live. Some 
day, my friend, you will close the desk in your office for 
the last time. No more will your hand turn the pages 
of the ledger nor take the pen to write a check. That _ 
evening gown and tuxedo will some day be worn for the | 
last time, and those jewels adorn another person than > 
yours. Some day your place in the pulpit, on the bench, 
in the pew, at the bar, in the office, at the desk, in the 
home and the schoolroom will be taken by another, and 


o* Cor: 18> Tea. 


14 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


you will have gone on to join that great caravan in its 
journey to that mysterious bourne. Thus it has ever 
been, and thus, if Jesus tarries, it ever will be. When 
that time comes all the money and skill in the world 
cannot stay the hour of your departure. You will have 
to bid farewell to the familiar faces, sights and sounds 
of life even as your fathers have done. This serious 
event cannot be evaded by any. When the command to 
leave comes, we must pack up and go. We may have 
lived out our allotted span of ‘‘three score years and 
ten,’’* and be living, as it were, on borrowed time, but 
the eventful and fateful hour will surely come. 


““There is no flock, however watched and tended, 
But one dead lamb is there; 
There ts no fireside, howso’er defended, 
But has one vacant chair.’’ 


It was said of the land of Egypt, in the days of Moses 
and at the time of the last plague—the death of the first- 
born of Egypt—that ‘‘there was not a house in which 
there was not one dead.’’*® So, to-day, it may be said 
there is scarcely a house in which there is not one dead. 
One realizes the truth of all this as he walks up and 
down the streets of his old home town, the place of his 
boyhood days. He makes inquiry as to the one who lived 
in this house and that and the other only to be told that 
they have died. It may be your turn next, reader, and 
so the subject of ‘‘The Life Beyond,’’ and ‘‘ What Hap- 
pens after Death’’ should be of intense interest to you. 
When that last hour comes; when earth recedes and 
heaven opens; when the voices of earth are no longer 
heard and the faces we have seen and loved have faded 


® Psa. 90: 10. * Exod. 12: 30. 


INTRODUCTORY 15 


from our view; when earth’s night is at hand and we are 
laid away for our last sleep; when we come to the end 
of the long, long road that leads to eternity; God grant 
that it may be well with us; that we may hear the voice 
of the Son of God bidding us weleome; may there be 
friends to meet us on that other shore; may our evening- 
tide be light, and our path be as the path of the just 
which shineth brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. 
May we be ‘‘earried by the angels’’ into Jesus’ bosom 
and rest in the very arms of Jesus!’ 


Twilight and evening bell 
And after that the dark 
And may there be no sadness of farewell, 
When I embark; 
For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and 
Place 
The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my Pilot face to face 
When I have crossed the bar. 


I have read of a nobleman who had a fool in his em- 
ploy. One day he gave the fool a walking stick and told 
him to keep it until he should meet a greater fool than 
himself. For years the jester kept the stick. One day 
he was called into his master’s room. There he saw his 
master lying, dangerously ill. 

‘‘T am going to leave you,’’ said the nobleman to his 
fool. ' 

‘‘ And whither are you going, and for how long a time 
will you be away ?’’ asked the fool of his master. 

*‘Oh, I am going to a far country and I do not know 
when I shall return, if ever.’’ 

‘* Will you be away longer than a year?”’ 


Luke 16: 22. 


16 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


SO Nips 3?” 

“Two years? ”’ 

‘‘Ves, longer than that. I am never coming back.’’ 

‘‘Well,’’ said the fool, ‘‘ may I ask what provision 
you have made for such a long absence in that country 
to which you are going?”’ 

‘‘None,’’ said the nobleman, ‘‘none.’’ 

‘‘What,’’ said the fool, ‘‘such a long journey, and no 
provision made for it?’’ 

‘‘None,’’ said the nobleman sadly. 

‘‘Then,’’ said the fool, ‘‘you had better take this stick, 
for with all my folly I am not so great a fool as you 
have shown yourself to be.’’ 

Death once came very suddenly to a man of wealth— 
as it often does. He had sent for his lawyer. They 
were talking by his bedside as to the disposition of his 
property. His wife and young daughter sat by his side 
on the bed. 

‘‘T want my wife to have this home and estate,’’ said 
the dying man to his lawyer within the hearing of his 
little daughter. The little girl knew naught of the seri- 
ousness of the situation. It was her first experience in 
the face of death. After hearing her father say that he 
wanted mother to have the house, the little girl turned 
to her dying father. 

‘‘Papa,’’ she said, ‘Shave you a home in the place 
where you are going?’’ 

Needless to say the question of the child set the dying 
man thinking. Reader, have you a home in that land? * 

It is a mark of greatest wisdom to consider the day of 
one’s death. There are said to be three days of note in 
every man’s experience: the day of his birth, the day of 

® John 14: 1-3. 


INTRODUCTORY 17 


his marriage, and the day of his death. The Bible de- 
elares that ‘‘It is better to go to the house of mourning 
than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end 
of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.’’® 
Strange wisdom that, which declares it to be better to go 
to a funeral than to a wedding. That is one of the 
marks of the Bible’s inspiration. No man would have 
written it that way. He would have reversed it. ‘‘This 
is the end of all men.’’ That is to say that all men may 
not marry, but all men must die. ‘‘O, that they were 
wise . . . that they would consider their latter 
end!’’*® When I was in China I noticed there was 
scarcely a time when I visited the cemeteries or burning 
ghats but that a Buddhist priest was there. I was told 
that every Buddhist priest is required by his religion to 
constantly frequent such places in order that he may 
meditate upon the brevity and uncertainty of this life. 
Reader, do you ever think about it? 

Perhaps it would not be an unwholesome thing for all 
of us to antedate the day of our death. That day will 
come and that event must be faced sometime. It cannot 
always be evaded. Stand by the casket of your departed 
friend, and ask yourself: ‘‘Were I in his place to-day, 
where would my soul be?’’ We are living such busy 
and fretful lives that we are in real danger of forgetting 
the certain fact that, eventually, death will claim us, and 
the claim may be presented when we are unprepared to 
entertain it. 

A Christian man ealled on a business friend one day 
to have a chat with him about the things which count for 
most in life. He saw that his business friend was very 
busy and sought to evade the interview. ‘‘I see you are 


*Fccles. 7:2. Deut. 32: 20. 


18 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


quite busy to-day,’’ the Christian friend said, “‘so I 
won’t take up your time.’’ 

‘‘Ves, yes,’’ agreed the business man, “‘I am, as you 
see, very, very busy to-day. Come again, some other day, 
will you?”’ 

‘“Yes, I see that you are busy,’’ returned the Christian 
as he rose to go. As he did so, he pulled his friend over 
to him and whispered in his ear: ‘‘Suppose I had been 
Death? Would you have been too busy, then?’’* 

There are those who speak in a spirit of braggadocio 
about death, claiming that they are not afraid to die. 

‘“Why, I am not afraid to die,’’ said one such, on one 
oeeasion, to a minister. ‘‘I could lay my head on my 
pillow and sleep like a little child, even though I knew 
I would die to-night. JI have no fear of death.’’ 

““You say you are not afraid to die and that you have 
no fears in death,’’ said the minister in reply. “‘May 1 
ask you if you have any hope in death?’’ 

‘“Well,’’ said the man, ‘‘no, I cannot say that I have 
any hope in death; but I have no fear.’’ 

‘‘Do you see that cow over yonder grazing?’’ asked 
the minister. 

**Yes,’’ replied the man, ‘‘I do.”’ 

‘‘Then, you are just like that cow—it just eats, drinks, 
exists; it has no fear in death, neither has it any hope.”’ 

No wise, thoughtful man will speak lightly of death. 
The last fear that is taken from the heart of man is the 
fear of death. ‘‘The last enemy that shall be destroyed 
is death.’’ * 

Over the triple doors of the cathedral of Milan three 
inscriptions span the magnificent arches. In most ele- 
gant carving over one of these arches there is to be seen 


"2 Kings 20: 1-7; Luke 12: 20. 4 Oot 15220, 


INTRODUCTORY 19 


a most magnificent wreath of roses, and beneath it the 
words: ‘‘All that pleases is but for a moment.’’ Over 
the arch to the left may be seen a sculptured cross, and 
beneath it the words: ‘‘ All that which troubles is but for 
a moment.’’ Inscribed on the great central arch lead- 
ing to the main aisle of the cathedral one may read the 
words: ‘‘That only is important which is eternal.’’ Oh, 
if we could but be conscious of these great truths all the 
time! Would trifles then trouble us? Would we permit 
ourselves to be fascinated by the world’s passing show? 
Would we not fix our hearts and minds on the things 
which, while not seen, are yet eternal? We would live 
more, I feel sure, for the things of the great Hereafter. 
Let us ‘‘think on these things.’’* 


%y John 2: 15-17. *Phil. 4:8. 


II 


THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION REGARDING 
THE FUTURE LIFE 


to be doubly sure of the reliability of our sources 

of information. No mere guess, uncertainty or 
speculation will satisfy the heart in so vital a subject. 
Great care, therefore, must be exercised in our examina- 
tion of the sources of knowledge concerning the future 
life and what lies beyond the grave. The layer of brick 
is not supposed to be guided by his eye but by the spirit-. 
level. No matter how good and accurate his own sight 
may be, his work is sure to be out of plumb unless 
checked by the spirit-level. So is it with the matter 
we are considering. We need knowledge that is more 
than human. We need a hand that is no less than 
divine to lift up the curtain that divides this world from 
the next, and permit us to catch glimpses of the great 
Hereafter, both near and far. Fortunately for us we 
have such accurate and reliable information.’ 

Not to pagan sources need we look for such knowledge 
and information on this subject such as can satisfy and 
comfort the heart. Pagan thought and literature is all 
but barren here. With all their learning and philosophy 
the Greeks had only a shrewd guess, a vague hope, a dim 
belief with regard to the life beyond the grave. Plato 
throws only indirect light on the matter. There is very 
little reference to it before Homer that aids us in con- 
structing any intelligent view of the subject. In The 


iB a matter of such great importance as this we need 


+See Heb. 4: 12% 2 Tim. 3:16, 17. 
20 


THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION 21 


Iliad he refers to human sacrifices to propitiate the spirits. 
While the Greeks believed, in a vague way, in immor- 
tality, no one seemed to ask how long it would endure, 
what was the nature of such existence, what the relation 
of those in that other world to the people living in this? 
What evidence does remain, in the form of foods, house- 
hold articles, field products, ete., in the tombs as they 
are opened by the archeologists, does not convey to us 
clearly whether they were acts of respect for the dead, 
or a manifestation of belief in a future life. We do 
know that this ancient people believed that the spirits 
wandered about, avenging the neglect of ancestral wor- 
ship and injury and wrong done to strangers; enforcing 
the rights of the first-born, and punishing people for the 
sin of broken oaths. 

The tombs, obelisks, pyramids and monuments of the 
dead scattered all over Egypt are mute witnesses to the 
fact of a belief in an immortal life beyond the grave 
having been held by the Egyptians; but they throw very 
little light on the subject, and the information concern- 
ing the life to come we are able to derive from such 
sources 1s very vague, contradictory and unsatisfying. 

The funeral ceremonies connected with the burning of 
the dead as practised in India throw very little if any 
real light on the nature of the future life, save that, in 
some vague way, the people of India believe in it. The 
same may be said also of the conception of life after 
death as it was held by the Romans. 

Even in the Old Testament Scriptures we do not find 
the words ‘‘immortal,’’ ‘‘immortality,’’ ‘‘eternal life.’’ 
We do find the ideas that cluster about these words con- 
stituting the faith of the Old Testament saints. Job, for 
example, is very explicit. He says: ‘‘If a man die, he 


22 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


shall live again.’’? Job is not here asking a question, 
as the Authorized Version might lead us to suppose; he 
is stating a fact of his belief that death of the body does 
not end it all. There was absolutely not the shadow of 
a doubt as to existence beyond the grave on the part of 
the patriarch Job. His conceptions may not have been 
as clear as those of the New Testament writers, but his 
faith in immortality was unwavering. He says further: 
‘“For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall 
stand at the latter day upon the earth . . . whomI 
shall see in my flesh and on my side.’’* David, also, ex- 
pressed his faith in life after death, when, in connection 
with the death of his little child, he said: ‘‘He cannot 
come to me, but I shall go to him;’’* and again: ‘‘My 
flesh also shall rest in hope; for thou wilt not leave my 
soul in hades, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to 
see corruption.’’* ‘‘I shall be satisfied when I awake 
with thy likeness.’’ ° 

It is not, however, until we come to the teachings of 
Jesus and the New Testament that we see the doctrine 
in a fuller and clearer light. It is said of Jesus Christ 
that ‘‘He hath abolished death and flashed light upon 
life and immortality.’’* The teachings, life, death and 
resurrection of Jesus Christ flashed unusual light on the 
subject of existence beyond the grave and caused it to 
stand out in the midst of blazing glory. To the dark 
clouds of uncertainty Jesus puts a silver lining of abso- 
lute assurance, and while He does not take away entirely 
the minor chord that is connected with death, He does 
so interweave the major chord with it that throughout 
all the music you hear the dominant major chord. Im- 


* Job 14: 14. ® Job 19: 26-28. *2 Sam. 12°22, 
° Psa. 16:9, I0. VESe a7e 1S. 2° Tim. Y210; 


THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION 23 


mortality, life beyond the grave, was dark before He 
came. He flashed light on it—the light of eternity. He 
illumined it with His divine knowledge. 

Of course, even with the wonderful illumination which 
Jesus flashed upon the subject, we do not find all the 
knowledge we mortals would lke to have or feel, per- 
haps, we should have concerning the life beyond the 
grave. There remain, and perhaps always will during 
our life of limited knowledge here, many questions re- 
garding that life that will remain unanswered. 


“‘Ts it so, O Christ in heaven, that whichever way we go, 
Walls of darkness must surround us; things we would, 
but cannot know? 
That the mfinte must bind us as a temple-vail unrent, 
While the finite ever weartes, and none e’er gain 
content? 


**Ts it so, O Christ in heaven, that the souls we love so 

well, 

Must remain in pain eternal, must abide im endless 
hell? 

And our love avail them nothing, even thine avail no 
more? 

Is there nothing that can reach them, nothing bridge 
the chasm o’er? 


**Ts it so, O Christ in heaven, that the fulness yet to 

come, 

Is so glorious and so perfect, that to know would strike 
us dumb? 

That if but for a moment we could pierce beyond the 
sky 

With these poor, dim eyes of mortals—we should just 
see God and die? ”’ 


_ But perhaps we have as much knowledge of the future 


“7 Cor. 19422. 


24. AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


as we can comprehend with our mortal, finite faculties. 
One sometimes wonders why those who were raised from 
the dead, such as Jairus’ daughter,’ the widow of Nain’s 
son,” Lazarus of Bethany,” and perhaps Paul the apostle, 
who may have been stoned to death at Lystra and was 
caught up into heaven hearing things unlawful for man 
to utter “—I say it is strange that none of these tell us 
what they saw during the time they were in the Great 
Hereafter. It has been asked if a child or a savage can 
understand the life of an intelligent and civilized man? 
It is assumed it cannot. It is absolutely certain that an 
ape cannot. And may it not be that the things connected 
with that other life are as far beyond the ken of our 
poor, finite powers as the life of the butterfly is beyond 
the imagination of the chrysalis? Suppose that an in- 
mate of an institution for the blind and deaf should sud- 
denly receive both sight and hearing and should en- 
deavour to communicate to his fellow inmates the glori- 
ous beauties of nature and life he had seen and heard 
since his recovery of sight and hearing, would he not 
find it impossible to tell it? Can a blind man see the 
beauties of nature? Can a deaf man appreciate the 
music and harmonies of an oratorio? 


Perhaps God is holding this revelation in reserve for 
us. Oh, what will be the surprises of the future! What 
wonderful things one hour in that other life will reveal! 
One day, in Calcutta, an old soldier, who had fought in 
the Indian Mutiny, was telling a group of tourists of*his 
experiences during those dark days—the thrills, the ad- 
ventures, the privations, the surprising experiences of 
those days happily long past. All at once his face 


* Matt. o. 7 T uke 7. "John 11. 
® Acts 14:9 with 2 Cor. 12. 


THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION 25 


lighted up, and he said: ‘‘ But I expect to see even greater 
surprises than these yet.’’ a 

The tourists looked at the frail, aged form of the old 
veteran, and wondered how he, at his age, could expect 
even greater surprises than those which had already 
befallen him. One of the number ventured to ask him 
when he expected to experience such thrills? 

The old veteran’s face lighted up with radianey: ‘‘ The 
first five minutes I spend in heaven with my Lord,’’ he 
replied, ‘‘will be fuller of greater surprises than any that 
have yet come into my life.”’ 

And so it shall truly be. What was it the queen of 
Sheba said? ‘‘And when the queen of Sheba had seen 
all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had 
built, and the food of his table, and the sitting of his 
servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their 
apparel, and his eupbearers, and his ascent by which he 
went unto the house of Jehovah: there was no more spirit 
in her. And she said to the king, It was a true report 
that I heard in mine own land of thine acts and of thy 
wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, 
and mine eyes had seen; and, behold, the half was not 
told me; thy wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame 
which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are these 
thy servants that stand continually before thee and that 
hear thy wisdom. Blessed be Jehovah thy God who de- 
lighteth in thee to set thee on the throne of Israel.’’* 
And are we not reminded of a word that is somewhat 
like that of this queen: ‘‘ Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, 
neither hath it entered into the heart of man the things 
which God hath prepared for them that love him’’?” 
The wonders and blessings of eternity will far surpass 
the greatest imaginings of the greatest minds on earth. 

1 


ay Kings 10: I-9. ML SOOT e seo. 


III 
WHAT IS DEATH? 


r {HERE can be no true understanding of life be- 
yond the grave until we, in some measure at 
least, and as far as it is possible, understand 

what death is. And here we are face to face with a real 
problem. Are we not as ignorant as to the real nature 
of death as we are of life, physiologically and scientif- 
ically? If we are unable to explain what ‘‘life’’ is, how 
then can we cause men to understand what death is? 
Indeed, so ignorant are we as to these matters that we 
cannot even explain what sleep is. May we go a step 
. further in our confession of ignorance and say that we 
do not understand what even matter is. Take the phe- 
nomena of matter. Men have been in touch with it ever 
since they came upon the earth. They have handled it, 
eaten it, are made up of it, and have studied and ana- 
lyzed it, but even now what is unknown of matter is far 
more than is known. After enumerating and describing 
some of its properties, scientists become bewildered, and 
the wisest of them are soon silent. 

In a letter to Charles Kingsley, Professor Huxley says, 
**T do not know that matter is anything distinct from 
force. I don’t know that atoms are anything more than 
pure myths. . . . My fundamental axiom of specu- 
lative philosophy is that materialism and spiritualism 
are opposite poles of the same absurdity—the absurdity 
of imagining that we know anything about either spirit 
or matter.’? And Professor August Wiesmann says: 

26 


WHAT IS DEATH? 27 


** All our knowledge of matter is and remains throughout 
provisional.’’ If, therefore, as we see is the case, our 
knowledge of things which are so constantly with us is 
so limited, what shall we say of those things which are 
beyond our.mere human ken? Surely for this we need 
a word of divine revelation. Flesh and blood cannot 
reveal it unto us." 

And what does man really know of the origin of life? 
Life has been under scientific investigation for more than 
two thousand years, and what do we know of a certainty 
about it? Sir William Dawson, speaking of the origin 
of man, says: ‘‘I know nothing about the origin of man 
save what I am told in the Bible—that God created him.’ 
I do not know any more than that, and I do not know 
any man that does. I would say with Lord Kelvin, 
that there is nothing in science that reaches to the origin 
of anything.’’ And when it comes to the matter of meta- 
physics we are still in a maze. What do even our uni- 
versity men, after years of study, know about the phe- 
nomena of consciousness, memory, the sense of guilt? 
They know nothing more of a certainty, than does the 
man on the farm. 7 

So is it with the matter of man’s mere human defini- 
tion of death. It is to the Bible we must go for a true 
meaning of death. And let us not forget that in defining 
death and seeking to find its meaning, we are not re- 
ferring, certainly not primarily, to that experience as 
we commonly behold it. To us, in its common, every- 
day meaning, death means the loss of a loved one from 
our sight, the coming back to an empty home and lonely 
fireside where once that loved one dwelt. It means the 
heartache of missing the companionship of the dear one. 


*See Matt. 16:17; 11:25. * Gen, 1: 26. 


28 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


We associate death with the cessation of breathing, the 
stilling of the pulse and the heart, the closing of the eyes 
and ears forever to human sight and sound, the failure 
of the body to respond to its earthly environment. That 
is death as commonly viewed and defined. And perhaps ~ 
that is the most significant thing about it as we view it 
with our mere human knowledge minus the revelation as 
contained in the Word of God. But surely death is 
something deeper than that. Death is more than phys- 
ical; it is moral, spiritual, yea, eternal. It has relations 
to God as well as to man, to that other life as well as 
to this. fl 

Those who think somewhat deeply, as they stand by a 
casket containing the dead, know that something has left 
the body which heretofore animated it, and that that 
something has gone into another world on a great ad- 
venture—that something, which looked out from those 
eyes, that heard through those ears, that flashed love or 
hate from those eyes and that face has now gone, and is 
incapable any longer of manifesting itself through the 
organs of the human body. ‘To the thinker, we say, the 
potter has left the clay, the actor has gone off the stage, 
the moulder of life’s actions has left the scene. The real 
personality has gone; all that is now left is the outer 
man that contained within it the inner and real man. 
And all this brings us to that further important ques- 
tion which must be understood if we are to catch the 
true meaning of death. And that question is: ‘‘ What 7s 
man?’?*® Until this question is answered and under- 
stood we will fail to see the true, deep, inner meaning of 
the experience we describe as the exit of the spirit, or 
soul, from the body. 


*Psa.'8: 4. 


WHAT IS DEATH? 29 


What, then, is man? Man is more than body; nor is 
he a body with a soul; he is rather a soul dwelling in a 
body. This is important to remember. Dr. Charles 
Mayo, the famous Rochester surgeon, tells us that the 
average man’s body ‘‘ would furnish fat enough to make 
seven bars of soap; iron enough for a medium-sized nail; 
sugar enough to fill a salt-shaker; lime enough to white- 
wash a chicken-coop; phosphorus enough to make the 
tips of 2,200 matches; magnesium enough for a dose of 
magnesia; potassium enough to explode a toy cannon, 
and sulphur enough to rid a dog of fleas; the value of 
all which is said to be about ninety-nine cents.”’ 

But is that man—man made in ‘‘the image of God ’’? ‘ 
Surely not. Man himself knows that he is not that, and 
that he is worth infinitely more than that. He feels and 
knows that he is a soul and that the body is but the 
envelope that contains the spirit; that he has something 
within him—a spirit—which differentiates him from the 
mere animal; that over and above all the human ele- 
ments that are susceptible to decay, he has the spirit 
which God gave him and which will abide when his 
earthly frame shall have crumbled into dust. That he 
knows and of that he feels sure in spite of what any 
pseudoscience may say to the contrary. 

That man is more than body and is not primarily 
body, is clear from the fact that science teaches us that 
a man has had a number of bodies since he was born, 
and that the body completely changes every seven years. 
The man of fifty has had seven different bodies since his 
birth, and not a vestige of the preceding six remains. 
The atoms of a man’s body are changing as completely as 


Stat 20, 272-267. of, £3, 3° Os 6s Pph. 42 24s Col stipe 
t Thess. 5: 23. 


30 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


the beams of the sun and the drops of water that com- 
pose the stream. But during the changing of these six 
or seven bodies the man of fifty has remained the same 
man, for he is more than matter, material, body. His 
spirit-personality has remained unchanged. 

Nor should it be overlooked that man is more than 
brain, too. There are those, to-day, who would say that 
that is all man is—just brain. Psychologists have made 
great headway in their studies of the human mind. It, 
is interesting to read all they have to say about the 
actions of the brain—its structure, changes by reason 
of activity, ete. But when we have listened to all this 
we must say with regard to the brain what was said with 
reference to the body—that man is not brain; he is 
more than brain; the brain is not the man. For, as in 
the case of the man of fifty with reference to the changes 
in his body, the same can be said with regard to the 
brain—he has had as many different brains as he has 
had bodies, and not a vestige of the preceding six brains 
remains. And yet, the man can remember what he did, 
thought and planned with those brains which no longer 
have existence, and he holds himself morally responsi- 
ble for the thoughts of those brains that have gone. He 
condemns or approves what they did. That the brain 
is the seat of thought, will be granted; but it must be 
‘denied that it is the origin of thought. It is not the 
brain that controls the man, but the man that controls 
the brain. The brain is the violin; man is the violinist. 

Everything depends on what lies back of the brain. 
We are told that the brain of an ape is similar, in its 
physical structure, to that of a man, all of which may be 
true. Perhaps we might go further, if it were necessary 
to do so, and say that if you could put behind the brain 


WHAT IS DEATH? 31 


of an ape the spirit and soul® that God has put behind 
the brain of a man, it might be possible to utilize the 
brain of the ape even as the brain of a man. ‘‘ There 
is a spirit in man from the Almighty which giveth him 
understanding.’’* Let us not overlook that. An ape 
does not possess that spirit. 

And so it comes to pass that we must look upon mem- 
ory as more than a mere function of the brain. The Rich 
Man in Hades was told to ‘‘remember’’ even though his 
physical brain lay with his body in the grave.’ ‘‘ Were 
memory but a series of impressions made on the brain, 
they could no more survive the dissolution of the brain 
than impressions on wax could survive the melting of the 
wax.’’ Let us not forget that back of the brain there 
is a dominant personality moulding, fashioning, training 
it. ‘‘I am not my brain; it is mine. I use the brain. 
I possess it. It is mine; but it is not me.’’ 

Nor is man mere breath. Because the Hebrew and 
Greek words for breath and spirit are alike some would 
have us believe that breath and man are therefore equiv- 
alent. One has only to substitute the word breath in 
passages where the word spirit occurs to see how falla- 
cious such an idea is. Let us cite two illustrations. 
The apostle Paul says: ‘*‘ And I pray God your whole 
spirit, and soul, and body be preserved blameless unto 
the coming of our Lord Jesus.’’* Suppose we put the 
word breath in place of the word spirit and see what 
sense we can make out of the passage. It may be, and 
doubtless is, a very good thing for a man to have a blame- 
less rather than a foul breath, but surely that is not in 
the mind of the apostle in this passage. We cite one 
more illustration: ‘‘ The Spirit beareth witness with our 


®Gen. 2:7. ‘*Job 32:8 ‘Luke 16:25. ‘*1 Thess. 5:23. 


32 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


spirit that we are the sons of God.’’’ Is it possible, 
think you, with any sort of sense, to read the passage 
thus: ‘‘ The Spirit beareth witness with our breath that 
we are the children of God’’? Certainly not. 

Man is preéminently spirit; the spirit is the highest 
part of his tripartite nature—body, soul and spirit.’ 
Man has been likened to a three-story structure. The 
upper story is the place of observation, the place where 
the Spirit holds communion with man: there the 
spirit dwells. The second story is the place of the 
soul, the workshop, the link between the body and spirit, 
the seat of the emotional nature. The lowest story is 
that of the body. Some one has said that this structure 
suffered a severe shock at the time of the Fall. The fall 
of man” ‘‘was a moral earthquake which so shook the 
house that the third story fell into the basement.’’ Now 
the natural man is the soulish or psychical man,” soulish, 
natural, and sensual meaning practically the same thing. 
Man, in his natural state, may not be utterly bereft of 
the spirit or, at least, the capacity for it, but his under- 
standing is darkened * and is to all intents and purposes 
“‘dead’’” to God and the things of the Spirit of God, 
until, by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, it is 
quickened into life.“ And no act of man can do that. 
It is the work of the Spirit of God to restore the spirit 
of man to its original and proper place, and that place 
is primary, so Paul reverses the natural order of body, 
soul and spirit, and speaks of man in his regenerate 
order as spirit, soul and body. A natural man is one 
who is controlled by the soul; a spiritual “ man is one 
who is conditioned and controlled by the spirit which 


*Rom. 8: 16. Gen. 3; Rom. 5: 12. 1s) Cot 2: 14, 
¥ Eph. 45:18.) 7 Ephi2: 5... “ John3: 5-7. a Cor..25iaaaa 


’ WHAT IS DEATH? 33 


has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God. A 
spiritual body “ is not a body of spirit like a ghost,” but 
one in which the body and spirit are in full harmony. 

So we see that man is more than body, brain, breath. 
There is an inner man inside the outer man and this 
inner man survives the destruction of the outer man.” 
A preacher was once illustrating this point to some chil- 
dren. He held in his hand a watch, and said: ‘‘ Chil- 
dren, what is this I hold in my hand?’’ 

‘*A watch, sir,’’ was the answer. 

‘*How do you know it is a watch?’’ 

‘*We can hear it tick, sir.’’ 

‘‘That is correct,’’ said the minister. ‘‘Now I am go- 
ing to remove the works from the watch-case and hold 
the works in my right hand and the empty case in my 
left. Now watch me closely.”’ 

He then separated the works from the ease and said 
to the children, ‘‘ Now, in which hand do I hold it? ”’ 

‘<TIn the right hand, sir,’’ the children answered. 

‘*How do you know that that which I hold in my right 
hand is the watch?’’ 

‘*Because we can hear it tick, sir.’’ 

‘‘Now,’’ said the speaker, ‘‘I am going to put the case 
of the watch over there under my hat, and then I am 
going to ask you to tell me where the watch is.”’ 

The children watched him eagerly until he had put 
the case under the hat and returned to his place at the 
table. ‘‘Now tell me where the watch is,’’ he asked, as 
he held the works up in his right hand. 

**In your right hand, sir.’’ 

**Do you mean to tell me that the watch ean tick, tell 
the time and keep going without the case?’’ 


*y Cor. 15: 44. TT uke 24: 30. *2 Cor. 4: 16-18. 


34 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


‘<Yes, sir,’’ replied the children in chorus. 

‘‘Well,’’ said the minister, ‘‘so it is with the soul. It 
lives, feels, thinks and goes on existing long after the 
body which encased it has been put into the grave.’’ 

So is it with man. When his body—his outer man— 
sleeps in the grave, the real man—the inner man, the 
soul—-will not go to sleep with the body. It will leave 
the body and go to some other sphere, higher or lower, 
above or below.” The body is but the tabernacle” in 
which the soul dwells. Some day the soul will move out 
of the house it has inhabited for a time. On the tomb- 
stone you may read: ‘‘ Here lies’’—the tabernacle your 
loved one once inhabited. But HE has gone out of it. 
Yes, but where is HE? ‘‘Man dieth, and where is he?’’®™ 
‘<The body without the spirit is dead.’’ So the ‘‘dust 
returns to the earth as it was and the spirit to the God 
who gave it.”’” ‘‘Here lies the body of saved by 
the grace of God; moved out until renovated, repaired, 
renewed, glorified.’’ Is it not for just such a renovation 
that the Christian ‘‘groans’’ ?* 

In the Sistine Chapel, in Rome, there is a painting by 
Michael Angelo descriptive of the creation of man. The 
body of Adam is seen, already formed but lifeless. Then, 
as though floating in ether, the Spirit of God is seen 
touching the body of Adam. As the result of that con- 
tact with Adam’s body, sparks of life are seen darting 
hither and thither. ‘‘And so man became a living 
soul.’?™* ‘‘The body without the spirit is dead.’?* So 
we have answered the question, ‘‘What is death?’’ by 
showing what man 1s. 





® Luke 16: 22-24. *2 Cor..5: 1-6. ** Tob 14:10. 
2 Eccles. 12: 7. 32 Cor. 5:2, 4; Rom. 8: 22, 26. 
*% Gen. 2:7. # 128/12 7.20) 


IV 
WHAT IS DEATH? (Continued) 


NASMUCH, then, as the Bible is the only reliable 
| source of information with regard to the meaning 
of death, let us turn to it for information on the 
subject. In all Bible study it is important to note what 
is called ‘‘the law of first mention.’’ By this is meant 
the first time and place where any subject in the Bible 
is mentioned the first time. We should carefully note 
what that passage has to say regarding the subject be- 
cause therein we find its fundamental meaning. It may 
be referred to again and again in the later unfolding of 
Seripture but its meaning is carried right through from 
the first passage even unto the last. Its meaning may 
be amplified, enlarged, illustrated but never changed or 
contradicted. For example: what Babel is in Genesis,” 
that it is all the way through the Bible even unto the 
fall of Babylon in the closing chapters of Revelation.’ 
It signifies, always, opposition to God and all His pur- 
poses. 

Let us look at the first mention of death in the Bible. 
We find it in the account of Eden. In this primitive 
condition we find God and man in most intimate com- 
munion. They walk together in fellowship in the gar- 
den.” No cloud comes between them to mar that com- 
munion. During one of these walks God draws Adam’s 
attention to all the trees of the garden. He tells him 
that he may eat of them all, except one—‘‘the tree of 


1Gen. II. * Rev. 16-18, ®> Gen. 3:8. 
35 


36 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


the knowledge of good and evil.’’ This he is warned 
not to eat of—‘‘for in the day that thou eatest thereof, 
dying, thou shalt die.’?* Adam and Eve are solemnly 
warned not even to touch it, much less to partake of its 
fruit. This command our first parents disobeyed as we 
know... In so doing they brought down upon themselves 
the curse: ‘‘In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou 
shalt surely die.’’ So Adam died, in the day that he 
ate of the tree. 

Now let us see what really happened to Adam and 
Eve in the ‘‘day’’ that they died. In the first place a 
eareful reading of the story tells us that one of the re- 
sults of their sin was shame: there was an inward self- 
consciousness of shame: ‘‘they knew that they were 
naked.’’* But they had been so before they had sinned, 
and yet they were not then ashamed. There had been 
no outward change in their appearance. The accusa- 
tion of their consciences’ rather than the nakedness of 
their bodies was the cause of their shame. 

In the next place we note that there was a change in 
their relation of fellowship with God. No longer did 
they enjoy unbroken and unhindered fellowship with 
Him. On the contrary, they ran and tried to hide them- 
selves when they thought God was coming for the usual 
communion and walk in the garden.” ‘‘They would hide 
themselves from the presence of the Lord.’’ Surely 
there had been no change on God’s part, nor did this 
aversion to fellowship come from Him. God’s loving 
heart was the same. Sin had broken their communion 
with God. The spirit of man had now become sepa- 
rated from the Spirit of God. And in this sentence lies 


“Gen. 3: 15-17. ® Gen. 3:6. *Gen. 3:7. 
*Gen. 3:11. ® Gen. 3:8. a We ap 4 2. 


- WHAT IS DEATH? 37 


the very heart of the meaning of death—it is the sepa- 
ration of the spirit of man from the Spirit of God. 

That death, so far as it affected the spirit, took place 
immediately they had sinned. Its effect upon the body 
would be seen later, indeed it would be continually in 
process of taking place until finally the human spirit left 
the tabernacle of clay. The body was condemned to 
death even though it was many years before the execu- 
tion of the sentence was earried out. And unless the 
death of the spirit is corrected before the death of the 
body takes place it is likely to become eternal death, in- 
deed, does so become. So we see that Adam’s sin had 
already caused ‘‘death’’—that death of the spirit, the 
separation of the spirit of Adam from the Spirit of God, 
and that is death in its deepest meaning. During all 
the years of Adam’s life that death sentence was being 
carried out so far as it pertained to the body. When 
Adam was nine hundred and thirty years old, he died.” 
—then the sentence of death on the body was finally 
executed. 

Physical life is the union of the spirit of man with his 
body. Physical death is the separation of that spirit 
from his body. Spiritual life is the union of the spirit 
of man with the Spirit of God. Spiritual death is the 
separation of man’s spirit from the Spirit of God. 
Eternal life is the union of the spirit of man with the 
Spirit of God made perpetual and unending. ternal 
death is that separation of the spirit of man from the 
Spirit of God made perpetual and endless.” 

From what has been said it should be clear that death 
is essentially a moral, ethical, spiritual thing, even more 
than it is physical. It is for this reason that the Bible 


7 Gen. 5:5. 4 Matt. 25:41, 46; Rev. 20:15; 21:8. 


38 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


99 12 


declares death to be ‘‘the wages of sin. Spiritual 
death is the alienation of man’s spirit from the Spirit of 
God. And it is this spiritual aspect that we need to lay 
most emphasis on. Jesus may be said to have made 
light of the death of the body, if not absolutely, cer- 
tainly relatively. ‘‘Fear not them that kill the body,’’ 
He said, ‘‘and after that have no more that they can 
do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: fear 
him who, after he hath killed, hath power to cast both 
soul and body into hell: fear him.’’ * 

The writer to the Hebrews, in referring to the death 
of Christ, puts it this way: ‘‘That he, by the grace of 
God, should taste death for every man.’’” The Greek 
word for grace differs from that for separate only in 
one letter. Some manuscripts put the word meaning 
‘“separate’’ instead of the word meaning grace, and read 
the passage this way: ‘‘That he, separated from God, 
should taste death for every man.’’ This translation 
certainly bears out what we have here been saying as to 
the meaning of death. And, after all, was it not this 
kind of death that Jesus tasted? Did He not ery out 
on the Cross: ‘‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken 
me?’’* Was it not from such a death that His holy 
soul shrank in the garden? Surely Jesus was not pray- 
ing to be delivered from mere physical death. No one 
who had talked about physical death as beautifully as 
Jesus had done, could be afraid of it.° No, physical 
death was not the cup He was praying might pass from 
Him.” After He had fought His battle in the garden 
and angels had strengthened Him, and when Peter took 
his sword to defend Him—it was then that Jesus said: 


* Rom. 6: 23. 4 Tuke 12° 4,6: * Heb. 2:8. 
* Matt. 27:46. “Matt. 9:24; John 11:11. ™ Luke 22: 39-46. 


WHAT IS DEATH? 39 


‘““The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not 
drink it?’’” So the eup lay ahead of Him even after 
the struggle of Gethsemane had passed. We do not 
have here the picture of a martyr but of a suffering 
God. It is Jesus’ holy soul in distress as He viewed the 
prospect ahead of being made sin for us,” and in that 
offering, having the face of the Father hidden from 
Him.” The cup and death here referred to was the three- 
hours’ desertion by God while Jesus hung upon the 
Cross. It was then and thus that He ‘‘tasted death for 
every man.’’™ 

In one of the Messianic Psalms in which the sufferings 
of the Messiah are predicted, we find these words: ‘‘ The 
pains of Sheol gat hold upon me.’’” What is Sheol? 
What are the pains of Sheol? The root meaning of 
Sheol is ‘‘to ask,’’ ‘‘to inquire.’’? Sheol is the place of 
departed spirits who have missed God and are erying 
out ‘‘Why? Why?’’ Now think of the words of Jesus: 
*““My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’’ It 
is perhaps for this reason that Jesus may be said to have 
died before He died, by which is meant that the physical 
death of Jesus, which came after the spiritual death of 
separation from God, was but a seal of a death that had 
already taken place when He cried out, ‘‘It is finished, ”’ 
just as the Incarnation at Bethlehem was but the carry- 
ing out of a renunciation which, according to the fortieth 
Psalm, had taken place ages before Bethlehem, when 
the Son said to the Father: ‘‘Lo, I come to do thy will, 
O my God.’’™ 


To sum up then, let us say that death, in its inner 


*% John 18:11. 3 2 Cor. 8< 27 nilsad 82> EP. 
PP ha tI? 3. % Psa. 40:6-8; Heb. 10: 5-7. 


40 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


and deepest meaning, is the separation of the spirit of 
man from the Spirit of God, a condition of being dead 
to the things and life of God in the soul which is im- 
parted at the time of regeneration. Death, later, issues 
in the separation of the spirit of man from his body. 
But it is the first aspect of death here mentioned—the 
death of the spirit—that the Bible lays most emphasis 
on. Physical death is viewed as but a mere incident 
scarcely worthy of thought as compared with that deeper 
death of the spirit. If this death of the spirit is cor- 
rected before the death of the body takes place, then the 
soul enters into eternal life. If it is not thus corrected, 
then that spiritual death becomes the second or eternal 
death—the eternal separation of the spirit of man from 
the Spirit of God. 

This is a most solemn thought and it is what makes 
both living and dying a most serious matter. Those who 
have not experienced the second birth, that birth from 
above, by the holy Spirit of God and as the result of 
faith in Christ, must, inevitably, enter into that state of 
the second death.” It is only as we accept Christ as 
Saviour that the second death is avoided. He who is 
born twice, dies but once—the physical death; the second 
death hath no power over him. This decision must be 
made before the death of the body overtakes us. Is there 
any thought, think you, more serious than this that can 
engage our attention? 


% John WT 3 Rev. 20:15; 21:8. 


i 
HOW DEATH COMES TO MEN 


(\» we tell what really happens when a man’s 
spirit leaves his body? Standing by the death- 
bed of a friend or a loved one, as the last breath 
is taken and the spirit no longer tenants the body, can 
we know what happens in that moment of solemn im- 
port? Has the Bible anything to tell us as to that ex- 
perience ? 

There are two ways of dying described in the Bible: 
dying in sin, and dying in Christ. ‘‘If ye believe not 
that I am he, ye shall die in your sins,’’ said Jesus, 
‘‘and whither I go ye cannot come.’’* ‘‘Blessed are the 
dead which die in the Lord.’’* There are the dead in 
Christ. ‘‘Say ye to the righteous that it shall be well 
with him, but woe to the wicked.’’* Perhaps as we 
stood looking on our friend as he drew his last breath 
we did not see any difference between the departure of 
his spirit and that of the man who was not a Christian. 
Yet, could we but have seen it, there was a difference, 
and the Scriptures tell us what that difference was. In 
point of fact what we see may, at times, seem to be at 
variance with what the Scriptures say; that is, viewing 
death in its mere outward aspect, and that, of course, is 
all that man can see. It does happen that, sometimes, 
a wicked man dies in apparent peace, while the Christian 
ends his earthly existence with a terrific struggle. But 
were we able to see inwardly, it would be different. 

A French nurse, who was present at the deathbed of 

*John 8:24. *Rev. 14:13. *1 Thess. 4:16. *Num. 23:10. 

41 | 


42 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


Voltaire, the noted French infidel, being urged to attend 
an Englishman whose case was critical, asked, ‘‘Is he a 
Christian ?’’ 

‘*Ves,’? was the reply; ‘‘he is a Christian, and of the 
very highest type, too. But why do you ask the ques- 
tion ?”? 

“<Sir,’’? she replied, *‘I was the nurse that attended 
Voltaire in his last illness, and not for all the wealth of 
Europe would I see another infidel die.’’ 

The spirit of the wicked does not leave the body with- 
out a struggle; it is utterly reluctant and unwilling to 
go: ‘‘The wicked is driven away in his wickedness.’ 
“‘Terrors shall make him afraid on every side and shall 
chase him at his heels. He shall be rooted out of his tent 
wherein he trusteth, and he shall be brought to the king 
of terrors. He shall be driven from light into darkness 
and chased out of the world.’’* ‘‘When a wicked man 
dieth his expectation shall perish, and the hope of his 
heart perisheth.’’‘ ‘‘Sheol from beneath is moved for 
thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the shades of the dead 
for thee.’’ * 

The spirit of the wicked and unbelieving knows full 
well that that separation, which up to this moment has 
been of such a nature that it could, under certain cir- 
cumstances, be brought into living touch with God and 
healed, is now entering upon a stage of existence where 
such a change is absolutely impossible; for that separa- 
tion of the spirit of man from the Spirit of God becomes 
an eternal thing. The spirit of the wicked knows that 
all that it possesses has been concentrated in this life; 
that it has no treasure laid up in heaven;’ that its hori- 


® Prov. 14: 32. ‘Job 18:11, 14, 18. "Prov. Il: 7. 
nah RC OER ° Matt. 6: 19, 20. 


HOW DEATH COMES TO MEN 43 


zon here was bounded by things temporal, while things 
eternal found no solid and abiding place in its thought. 
It is going into that other life bankrupt, naked, empty- 
handed, as a pauper, and with a lost and ruined rec- 
ord for which there is no hope of change. No wonder 
the spirit of such a man struggles not to leave the body 
to be driven away into the darkness. Truly it has to 
be driven away! Vainly would it hold on to its place in 
the body, but the edict of heaven has gone forth: ‘‘This 
night thy soul is required of thee,’’ * and it must now bid 
farewell to the body it has so long tenanted. 

It is said that man is able to guard his heart so that 
only that which he desires to enter may do so. In a 
sense, even God cannot enter unless the man desires to 
admit Him. God will not force Himself into any heart. 
He will enter only as an invited Guest. ‘‘He made as 
though he would have gone further; and they con- 
strained him, saying, Abide with us, Lord.’’* The latch 
of a man’s heart is on the inside; and in reality, no one 
but he can open it to admit a guest. Man would keep 
out of his heart the messenger of death if he could—at 
least the wicked man would. Perhaps it is for this rea- 
son that the Bible speaks of death as a burglar: ‘‘ Death 
cometh up at the windows.’’* Not through the door but 
through the window does death make his way into the 
house of a man’s heart. Like a thief and a robber death 
climbs up some other way.” ‘Thus does death steal into 
the hearts of men who would keep him out if they could. 
But the struggle ends at last and the spirit of the un- 
believer is obliged to leave the body and enter into that 
condition of unending separation from God, light, joy, 


®Tuke 12:20. 1T uke 24:29; Rev. 3:20. 
met oO ai. * John 10:1. 


Ad AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


happiness, heaven, Christ, good angels and our loved 
dead in Christ. What an exclusion! What a heritage 
of woe! Why will men choose death rather than life?“ 

But in the event of the death of the believer it is far 
different. In a sense he desires and welcomes death: 
‘‘For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to 
depart and be with Christ; which is far better.”’” ‘‘We 
are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from 
the body, and to be present with the Lord.’’* In the 
deepest sense of the word the believer in Christ does not 
die at all. ‘‘He that believeth on me shall never die.’’ 
‘‘Tf a man keep my saying he shall never see death,’’* 
‘It is true that the Christian, even as others, must go 
through the experience of the separation of the soul from 
the body; but this is a trifling matter compared with 
that separation of the spirit from the Spirit of God, 
which constitutes death in its deepest sense. The Chris- 
tian has ‘‘passed out of death into life.”?” Having been 
born twice, he dies but once—the death of the body; 
over him the second death—the death of the soul—has 
no power.” Once a man believes in Jesus Christ his ob- 
jective changes from death to life. His outlook from 
that moment is eternal life. The question of eternal 
death shall never again be brought before him; Christ 
settled that for him at the Cross. 

How beautifully Jesus speaks of the death of the be- 
liever: ‘‘Our friend Lazarus sleepeth;’’” ‘‘the maid 
sleepeth.’’?” Paul, catching this idea from the teachings 
of Jesus, speaks of the dead as those ‘‘who are fallen 
asleep in Christ,’’* ‘‘those who sleep in Jesus.’? What 


@ Fizek.'49 311109" Phil. 1°23. 2 Cor s:80." Joon 10a 
* John 8: 51: * John $24. * Rev. 20:18; 21:8 
# John 11:11. ~ Matt. 9.24. 1 Thess. 4: 14. 


HOW DEATH COMES TO MEN 45 


is meant by sleep? There is no desire here to cast asper- 
sion on those who believe in the ‘‘sleep of the soul be- 
tween death and the resurrection.’’ We simply say that 
Jesus did not mean that, never taught it, nor does the 
Bible anywhere teach it, as we shall see. The soul is not 
unconscious between death and the resurrection. On this 
point the Scriptures are clear, we think. 

What then did Jesus mean when He referred to death 
as ‘‘sleep ’?? He was secking to throw light on a dark 
picture ; He was trying to make a gruesome subject beau- 
tiful; He was seeking to clothe in an attractive garb, as 
attractive as possible under existing circumstances, an 
unwelcome guest. What really happens in sleep? 
Three things. First: what we call sleep does not cause 
the flow of our natural life to cease. We still live, even 
in sleep. Indeed it is a question as to whether our con- 
sciousness is quiescent; it is certain that our subcon- 
sciousness is not, for one becomes quite active and wide 
awake in dreams, and often is found planning while 
asleep. So what we call death can no more impair the 
conscious eternal life which God gives to the soul than 
sleep impairs the flow of natural life. 

In the second place, sleep is indeed a soothing potion. 
How often, after we have spent many nights of weary 
watching beside the bed of the sick and dying, the doctor 
has compelled us to go and sleep. And with his aid we 
have slept the first sleep for days and nights, and for the 
hours he helped us to sleep we forgot all about our heart- 
ache and sorrow and grief. So shall it be in that day 
when we shall enter into that life of the blessed. ‘‘Our 
sorrows and our trials like a dream shall pass away.”’ 

Third, sleep means waking again. On retiring we 
often set the alarm clock and when it goes off in the 


46 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


morning we rise, refreshed after the night’s sleep, to take 
up the new duties of the day. And so 


““We shall sleep, but not forever, 
There will be a glorious dawns; 
We shall meet to part no, never, 
On that Resurrection Morn.’’ 


“‘T shall waken in the morning when I hear the angels 
amen the face .of Jesus, while about His form I 
He ait Lift me to His bosom, place my head upon His 
In Wane arms of Jesus, I shall ever be at rest.’’ 


In the Bible, sleep refers always to the body and not 
to the soul. The soul never sleeps. ‘‘And many of the 
sleepers in the dust shall awake.’’™” ‘‘And the bodies of 
the saints which slept, arose, and eame forth from their 
tombs.’’ * 

Paul is most descriptive in his setting-forth of the 
death of the man in Christ. When his own death seems 
to him to be near and Nero is about to demand his be- 
heading, Paul refers to the event in the following words: 
‘‘The time of my departure is at hand.’’*” That word 
departure is an interesting one. It is a sailor’s word. 
It has reference to the ship which has been fastened to 
the pier and now is to be let loose and start on her home- 
ward voyage. So life is looked upon as a ship that is 
anchored to the shores of earth. Death is the command 
to loose the ship and let it go to its destined haven that 
it may ‘‘go home.’’ What a world of comfort there is in 
those words! Have you ever been far away from home 


* Dan. 12:1. ® Matti(27* §1. 52. *%>2 Tim: 4:8. 


HOW DEATH COMES TO MEN AT 


for a long time, traveling in some far-away lands? Do 
you remember the joy that came to your heart as you 
stepped aboard the ship that would take you home again, 
to family and loved ones? I can reeall very vividly 
such an experience, when, after a nine-months’ world- 
tour I set my face towards home. I can well appreciate 
what Henry van Dyke felt when he penned these words: 


"Tis fine to see the Old World, and travel up and down * 
Among the famous palaces and cities of renown, 

To admire the crumbly castles and statues of the kings,— 
But now I think I’ve had enough of antiquated things. 


So it’s home again and home again, America for me! 
My heart ris turning home again, and there I long to 


€ 

In the land of youth and freedom beyond the ocean 
bars, 

Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full 
of stars. 


Oh, London is a man’s town, there’s power in the air; 

And Paris is a woman’s town with flowers in her hair ; 

And it’s sweet to dream in Venice, and it’s great to study 
Rome; 

But when it comes to living, there is no place like home. 


I like the German fir-woods in green battalions drilled; 

I like the gardens of Versailles with flashing fountains 
filled; 

But, oh, to take your hand, dear, and ramble for a day 

In the friendly western woodland where Nature has her 
way! 


It was this thought regarding death as expressed by 
the apostle Paul that brought comfort to the soul of 
Bret Harte. For years he had been troubled about dying. 


* Poems of Henry van Dyke. Chas. Scribner’s Sons. 


48 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


But the words of Paul comforted and cheered him and 
chased the clouds of dread away. In the following sonnet 
he tells us of this experience, both before and after he 
had come to understand and appreciate the words of 
Inspired Writ. He says: 


‘“As I stand by the Cross on the lone mountain crest, 
Looking over the ultimate sea; 
In the gloom of the mountain a ship les at rest, 
And one sails away from the lea. 
One spreads its sails o’er a far-reaching track, 
With pennant and sheet flowing free; 
One hides in the shadows, with sails laid aback— 
The ship that 1s waiting for me. 


““When, lo, in the distance, the clouds break away; 
The morn’s glowing portals I see; 
And I hear from the outgoing ships in the bay, 
The song of the sailors in glee. \ 
Then I think of the luminous footprints that bore 
The comfort o’er dark Galilee; 
And I wait, gladly wait, for the ship at the shore— 
The ship that is waiting for me.’’ 


Again, the apostle Paul uses another word that is strik- 
ingly significant in describing death. He declares that 
‘‘Christ hath abolished death and brought life and im- 
mortality to light.’?” The word ‘‘abolished’’ in this 
verse is full of rich meaning. The Greek root from which 
the word comes denotes a working force and power. The 
addition of the preposition ‘‘ kata ’’ gives to the word 
the idea of a double force or power. So that what is 
taught in this verse concerning death is this: Before 
Jesus died on the Cross, death was a tremendous force 
in the world; but His death did something to it; it 


72 Tim. 1:10. 


HOW DEATH COMES TO MEN 49 


devitalized it, neutralized it; doubletwisted it; negatived 
it; rendered it inactive, unproductive, useless, null, void; 
abrogated it, vanquished it, destroyed it; made it inop- 
erative and powerless. Now we ean see the deep mean- 
ing in that wonderful passage: ‘‘ Forasmuch then as the 
children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also himself 
in like manner partook of the same; that through death 
he might bring to naught him that had the power (or 
sovereignty) of death, that is the devil; and might de- 
liver all them who through fear of death were all their 
lifetime subject to bondage (that is the bondage of the 
fear of death).’’* 

I do not know very much about bees. I know, of 
course, that they sting you and can cause very painful 
wounds. I am informed, however, that when a bee stings 
you, it leaves its sting in the wound and goes away to 
die. It can never sting or hurt anybody else. You can 
let your little child play with it and it cannot hurt your 
child; its sting is gone. Death stung Jesus on the 
Cross and it left its sting in Him, and blessed be God, 
it cannot hurt the believer any more. Christ hath abol- 
ished death. The grave has capitulated! Death is van- 
quished! ‘‘Thanks be unto God which giveth us the 
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’’ 


“From morn ’til eve they struggled—life and death. 

At first it seemed to me as though in mirth 

They contended; as foes of equal worth. 

But when the sharp red sun cut through its sheath of 
Western clouds, 

I saw death’s grip tighten and bear the radiant form 
of life to earth; 

And suddenly both antagonists downward fell. 


* Heb. 2: 14. 


50 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


And then, O wonder of wonders! Marvel of marvels! 

When I went to the spot where both antagonists had 
fallen, 

I could not find the body that I sought; 

But one form was there—the dark, lone form of 
death— 

And it was dead.’’ 


So has Christ triumphed over death and the grave. 
The Christian can now sing: ‘‘O death, where is thy 
sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of 
death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; but 
thanks be unto God which giveth us the victory through 
our Lord Jesus Christ.’’” 

A most wonderful incident is reported in connection 
with the death of Dwight L. Moody, that world-renowned 
evangelist. His family were gathered about his bed in 
his home in Northfield, Massachusetts. They had bidden 
him farewell as they saw his eyes close in death. They then 
left the room. But while standing outside the room they 
thought they heard Mr. Moody moving in his bed or 
moaning, so they returned to the room and saw the great 
evangelist with eyes wide open and apparently conscious 
of his surroundings. It is said that one of his relatives 
began to pray that Mr. Moody might be spared and 
again serve God. The evangelist said, ‘‘Do not pray 
that I may live. I have seen Dwight and Irene [his two 
grandchildren who had died], and I have seen the face 
of Jesus, and I am satisfied. Earth is receding; heaven 
is opening; God is calling me; this is my coronation 
day!’’ And having thus spoken the great soul actually 
swept through the gates of that city into the New Jeru- 
salem. Is not that a wonderful picture of death? 


mA OOTATe Sse. 


HOW DEATH COMES TO MEN 51 


In dying ‘‘we are not mocked by a blind fury, nor 
erushed by an abstract law; we are not terrified by a 
skeleton nor torn by a demon. We are put to sleep by 
Christ. The keys of death are in His transfigured 
hands. They are golden keys—they open the door into 
heaven. The brother of Judge Bartells, when dying, 
said: ‘‘Open the gates; it is God’s will.’’ The brother 
of Dr. James Hamilton spoke to him when dying, of 
*‘death’s cold embrace.’’ He replied: ‘‘There is no cold 
embrace, William. I am safe in the arms of Jesus.’’ 
Jesus is ‘‘the death of death and hell’s destruction.’’ 


“*T shall not die when my swift race is run; 
Through the mists, I’ll see the rising sun; 
And He will come, and take me by the hand, and say: 
‘Come home.’ And we shall go together into glorious 
day. 


With such a knowledge of death, therefore, why should 
the Christian be afraid of it? Knowing all this, why 
should Christians ‘‘sorrow as others which have no 
hope’? To the Scripturally-instrueted Christians 
there are no pangs in death. I am not now referring to 
the agony and pain arising from the sickness that causes 
the dissolution of the soul and body, nor to the heart- 
ache that comes from having to leave loved ones behind. 
These are not death; they accompany it; they are the 
birth-pangs that usher the soul into that new and larger 
life, an earnest of which God gave to the soul at the 
time of its regeneration. 

I remember reading the story of a man who, blind- 
folded, was suspended by the wrists from a window. 
He was told that beneath him there yawned an awful 


1 Thess. 4: 13. 


52 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


chasm thousands of feet deep, and that at any moment 
the straps which held him suspended might be cut and 
he would drop to his death in the great chasm below. 
The sweat stood in beads upon his feverish brow; his 
heart throbbed with fear ; trembling and agony took hold 
upon him as he dwelt upon the thought that at any mo- 
ment he might be plunged into eternity. 

Then, one of his captors came to him and laughingly 
said, ‘‘ Well, I guess I’ll cut you down now and let 
you fall into the abyss below.’’ And, suiting the action 
to the word, he took a sharp knife, severed the leather 
straps that held the terrified man suspended, and the 
frightened man fell—just four inches—to the ground. 
And his friend laughed. And may not the same be said 
as to the Christian’s fears of death? May they not be as 
groundless as those of that frightened man? ‘They are. 


*“Why be afraid of death? As though your life were 
breath. 
Death but anoints the eyes with clay. O glad surprise! 


““Why should you be forlorn? Death only husks the 
corn. 
Why should you be afraid to meet the thresher of the 
wheat? 


“‘Ts sleep a thing to dread? Yet sleeping you are dead 
Till you wake and rise here, or beyond the skies. 


““Why should it be a wrench to leave your wooden 
bench? 


Why not run home with happy shout when school is 
out? 


“‘The dear ones left behind? O foolish one and blind; 
A day and you will meet; a night and you will greet. 


HOW DEATH COMES TO MEN 53 


“This is the death of death: To breathe away a breath, 
And know the end of strife, and taste the endless life. 


““And joy without a fear, and smile without a tear; 
And work, nor care, nor rest, and find the last the 
best.”’ 


To the Christian, death is not a descent; it is an ascent 
upward to be where Christ is. Why then should we 
fear either for ourselves or our believing dead? One 
sometimes wonders if a Christian ought to wear mourn- 
ing for the Christian dead. It is true that it is the ‘‘cus- 
tom’’ to wear it. But is the Christian to be controlled 
by the customs of the world? Do not the words of 
Peter indicate that we have been delivered by the death 
of Christ from the thraldom of the world’s customs in 
so far as they indicate the philosophy of man rather than 
the revelation of God? ‘‘Forasmuch as ye know that ye 
were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and 
gold from your vain manner of living received from tra- 
dition from your fathers.’’* The Christian is to have 
moral originality. He is to dare to stand alone if needs 
be. He has been redeemed from the slavery to the 
world’s fashions. He should ‘‘not sorrow, as other which 
have no hope.’’ Let those who believe that death is 
triumph for the Christian show the world that they be- 
lieve it by the manner in which they take death. It 
was Pliny who said that ‘‘ Death is a pleasure rather than 
a pain.’? The late Archbishop of Canterbury declared, 
when dying: ‘‘Dying is not so much after all.’’ One 
sometimes wonders if this is not the reason for the calm, 
peaceful and serene expression so often found on the 
faces of the Christian dead. Let us not be too quick to 


7 Pet. 1:18. 


54 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


say it is but a form of muscular reaction; let us rather 
be ready and willing to attribute it to the sublime faith 
of the dead. Why may not that peaceful expression on 
the face of the Christian dead be the parting testimony 
that that soul has entered into that peace which passeth 
all understanding? 


Peace! perfect peace! in this dark world of sin? 
The blood of Jesus whispers peace within. 


Peace! perfect peace! by thronging duties pressed? 
To do the will of Jesus this is rest. 


Peace! perfect peace! with sorrows surging round? 
On Jesus’ bosom naught but calm 1s found. 


Peace! perfect peace! with loved ones far away? 
In Jesus’ keeping we are safe, and they. 


Peace! perfect peace! our future all unknown, 
Jesus we know, and He is on the throne. 


Peace! perfect peace! death shadowing us and ours? 
Jesus has vanquished death and all rts powers. 


It is enough: earth’s struggles soon shall cease, 
And Jesus call to heaven’s perfect peace. 


I am fond of that expression used by the Master con- 
eerning the death of Lazarus the beggar: ‘‘The beggar 
died; and was earried by the angels into Abraham’s 
bosom.’’” Carried by the angels! That is wonderful 
and comforting. It did seem as though the poor beggar 
had no one to eare for him in his death. The story in- 
dicates that he did not have, as the Rich Man had, a 
funeral. Perhaps he was just thrown into the Potter’s 


32 Tuke 16: 22. 


HOW DEATH COMES TO MEN 55 


Field. But Jesus throws a beautiful light on the picture. 
Lazarus did not die alone. He had the companionship 
of angels in his death. He had heavenly pallbearers. 
And God will see to it that we shall not be lonesome in 
death. He saw to it that we were not alone when we 
eame into the world. There were father and mother, 
friends and loved ones, members of our family to wel- 
come us into this world. And it shall be so when be- 
lievers leave this world. God will see to it that we are 
not left alone. Did not the Master speak of our having 
‘*friends’’ who would ‘‘welcome us into the everlasting 
habitations ’’??“ Who can tell what God will do in that 
hour for a poor, timid, frightened soul? At the couch 
of the dying Christian will be the angel ushers, those 
heavenly watchers who are to ‘‘minister to those who 
shall be heirs of salvation.’’ “* We used to sing when I 
was a child a hymn about angels hovering about us. 
Then there is that fine hymn of Faber’s, part of which 
runs: 


Hark, hark! my soul! angelic songs are swelling 
O’er earth’s green fields and ocean’s wave-beat 
shore; 
How sweet the truth those blessed strains are telling 
Of that new life when sin shall be no more. 


Angels of Jesus, Angels of light, 
Singing to welcome the pilgrims of the night! 


Angels, sing on! your faithful watches keeping; 
Sing us sweet fragments of the songs above; 
Till morning’s joy shall end the night of weeping, 

And life’s long shadows break in cloudless love. 


®Tuke 16:9. 3% Heb, 1: 14. 


56 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


I am wondering not how little, but how much of fact 
there was in the action of that dying loved one who, in 
the moment of death, reached out her hands, and with a 
face illumined with a light never seen on land or sea, 
exclaimed: ‘‘O, mother, mother, I’m coming; I’m com- 
ing ’’? 

Who, I repeat, will dare to say what God will do for 
a frightened, timid soul? ‘‘Fear thou not, for I am with 
thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will help 
thee; I will strengthen-thee, yea I will help thee. When 
thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and 
through the rivers they shall not overflow thee; when 
thou passest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt, 
neither shall the flame kindle upon thee; for I, the Lord 
thy God, am with thee.’’* ‘‘Yea, though I walk through 
the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for 
thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort 
me. 99 86 


““He will keep me *til the river 
Rolls its waters at my feet; 
Then He’ll bear me safely over, 
Where the loved ones I shall meet.’’ 


ELSA. AS ti Psa 23a. 


VI 
THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 


HERE are three stages of man’s existence: the’ 
earthly stage, in which he is in the body; the 
intermediate stage, in which he is not in his 

earthly body (some think that a special kind of body is 
provided for this particular stage) and the final, eternal 
stage, in which man is again in his body, the body of his 
resurrection which shall be his throughout all eternity. 
It should be understood that no soul is yet in its final 
and ultimate stage of existence. That shall come to pass, 
for the righteous, when Christ shall have entered into 
the fulness | of His glory; for the wicked, after the judg- 
ment_of the Great White Throne. For that condition, 
whether it affects the righteous or the wicked, a resurrec- 
tion body is required. There is no soul in hell yet. 
Standing by the casket of the dead loved one, we may 
ask, ‘‘Where is he? Where is his soul or spirit at this 
moment? When he breathed his last where did he go 
from here?’’ Can we trace the soul as it left the body 
and started out on its Great Adventure into the Great 
Hereafter? These are the questions which naturally 
arise aS we begin to think at all about the condition of 
our dead. Can these questions be answered? We think 
they can—at least, to some extent. There are those who 
think it is presumptuous for us to make inquiry about 
the dead. They tell us that we ought to leave the dead 
alone; allow them to rest in God’s care and keeping. 
They tell us that we have no more right to probe into 
the condition of the dead beyond the grave than we have 
57 


58 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


to disturb the remains of those Egyptian kings who have 
rested in peace for centuries in their tombs. 

To confirm this opinion these people quote Scripture. 
They say ‘‘The secret things belong unto the Lord;’’* we 
therefore have no right to intermeddle with them. But 
we may remind such friends that they have quoted but 
half of the verse. While it is true that ‘‘the secret things 
belong unto the Lord,’’ we are not to forget that this 
verse says also that ‘‘the things that are revealed belong 
to us and to our children forever.’’ What God has been 
pleased to reveal in His sacred Word is surely a subject 
for our knowledge, perusal and inquiry. Further, did 

not Paul say to the Thessalonian Christians: ‘* Brethren, 
/ I would not have you ignorant concerning them that are 
\ asleep in Christ, that ye sorrow not as others which have 
_no hope ’’?* The apostle would not have believers re- 
main in ignorance concerning the condition and prospects 
of their dead; he would have us make inquiry concerning 
their estate. He would guard us from resorting to 
Spiritualists for such information and would send us ‘‘to 
the Law and to the testimony.’’® 

How scant and dim is the light we derive from pagan 
sources regarding the intermediate state of the soul be- 
tween death and the resurrection. I stood, one day, in 
one of the burning ghats in Calcutta, India. I watched 
the Hindus burning their dead. As the body was being 
consumed in the artes the priests chanted, while the 
relatives of the dead prayed. It was told me that as the 
soul of the deceased was said to be leaving the gross body 
of earth, which was then being consumed in the flames, 
it was receiving a subtle body about the size of a thumb. 


* Deut. 29: 29; eae oe ©} Thess, 4: 13-16. 
sa. 8: 19-22. 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 59 


If the relatives would perform the sacred funeral rites at 
the temple for the succeeding eleven days, then that 
subtle body would gradually enlarge until it became a 
complete body, a kind of divinity to which ancestral 
worship may thereafter be offered. If the relatives were 
unfaithful to the religious duties, or if the deceased had 
no relatives to perform them, then the spirit became an 
angry, roving, tormenting ghost, frequenting and inhab- 
iting human dwellings, torturing those who had neglected 
to perform the religious funeral rites for the dead. 

{I stood watching the Parsees in Bombay, India, carry- 
ing their dead to the Tower of Silence, there to expose the 
dead bodies to the carnivorous appetite of vultures and 
other carrion birds. According to the Parsee belief, that 
soul, when it left the body, was compelled to cross a 
bridge that is as sharp as a razor. The souls of the 
righteous are able to cross in safety; the unrighteous 
are unable to walk across it and so tumble into the pit 
below, and so are lost. 

I talked with a priest of Benares, India, who told me 
of the numerous transmigrations through which the soul 
of man had to pass before it reached its final heaven. 
There were many thousands of transmigrations—from 
the lowest form of animal life to the very highest order 
of created beings. 

Then there is the Mohammedan with his belief regard- 
ing the intermediate state. I talked with a highly edu- 
eated Mohammedan in Cairo, Egypt, at the close of one 
of my lectures there. He referred to the Mohammedan 
heaven into which the souls of the faithful go at death. 
It was a heaven of lustful conception, from which the 
soul of any decent man would surely revolt. It was a 
place and condition in which a man may have as many 


60 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


wives as he wishes, and where he may enjoy the pleasures 
of life without its pains. 

Perhaps one ought to refer here to the Roman Catholic 
doctrine of purgatory in which souls stay for a long or 
shorter time according to gifts of money, masses, prayers, 
ete. Tetzel, the famous seller of indulgences, made much 
of this teaching just prior to the Reformation. He went 
up and down Europe saying: ‘‘When money clinks at 
the bottom of my box, a soul is released from purgatory.”’ 
It was against such teaching that Luther protested and 
revolted. 

Then there are those who maintain that the soul sleeps 
between death and the pean bat which means, of 
course, that the soul is! unconscious during that time. 

There are still arhees who believe that souls of the 
wicked are annihilated at death. Of course if that be 
true we do not need to make any inquiry as to what is 
their state after death. 

But none of these views are, as it seems to us, in accord 
with the teaching of Holy Scripture. It will be of spe- 
cial interest to us, therefore, to inquire carefully as to 
what the Bible actually teaches regarding the interme- 
diate state. And particularly shall we consider what 
Jesus Himself taught concerning it. There are three 
portions of Scripture to which we may refer as setting 
forth the teaching of Jesus on the subject—the story of 
the Rich Man and Lazarus,’ the Transfiguration inci- 
dent, and the words of Jesus to the penitent thief on the 
Cross... We may add to these (as illustrating them) 
the two references in the Epistles of Peter’ in which we 


*Luke 16: 19-31. 


*Matt. 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Tuke 9:28-36; cf. 2 Pet. 
I: 16-18. 


*TLuke 23: 43. *z Pet. 3:18; 4:6, 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 61 


are told that Christ, at His death, went and preached 
to the spirits in prison. 

Incidentally we may glance briefly at such phrases as 
‘‘the cloud of witnesses’’ * who observe us as we run the 
race of life; those who are said to be waiting ‘‘to bid us 
welcome into the everlasting habitations;’’® and the 
‘‘joy’’ that is said to take place ‘‘in the presence of the 
angels of God.’’” 

Let us look, now, at the story of the Rich Man and 
Lazarus. In order that we may have it before 
us, it is reproduced here, in full: 


There was a certain rich man, which was clothed wn 
purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 

And there was a certain beggar named. Lazarus, which 
was laid at his gate, full of sores, 

And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell 
from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and 
licked his sores. 

And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was 
carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich 
man also died, and was buried; 

And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and 
seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 

And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy 
on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his 
. finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented 
in this flame. 

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou im thy 
lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus 
evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tor- 
mented. 


®*Heb. 12:1, 2.. °Tuke 16:9. Tuke 15:7, I0. 


62 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


And beside all this, between us and you there ts a great 
gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to 
you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come 
from thence. 

Then he sad, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou 
wouldest send him to my father’s house: 

For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto 
them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 

Abraham sath unto him, They have Moses and the 
prophets; let them hear them. 

And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went 
unio them from the dead, they will repent. 

And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the 
prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one 
rose from the dead. 


There are some interesting things to be said about this 
narrative. In the first place, I do not think it should 
be looked upon as a parable. Itisatruestory. It does 
not begin as parables do, nor is it so introduced. There 
is no ‘‘It is like unto;”’ or ‘‘To what shall I liken it;”’ 
or ‘‘the kingdom of heaven is like,’’ ete. It is a clear 
and plain statement of a fact: ‘‘ There was.’’ A parable 
has been defined as the statement of an analogy between 
visible and invisible things. But there is no such analogy 
here. It is rather a distinct and clear statement with 
regard to the spiritual things themselves. Nor should it 
be regarded as a parable setting forth the relation be- 
tween the Jew and Gentile, for no such great gulf is 
fixed to-day between them, nor has it ever been for that 
matter. A Jew could become a Gentile, and a Gentile 
a Jew, in our Lord’s day even as he can now. 

Nor is the story merely the recital of current opinion, 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 63 


Of course it could be that and yet be true. Because a 
thing is “‘popular’’ does not mean that it is not true. 
But a study of our Lord’s discourses clearly reveals the 
fact that when He came across popular opinion that was 
false He flayed it alive. The Sermon on the Mount is a 
witness to that fact: ‘‘Ye have heard that it hath been 
said . . . butZ say untoyou.’’ It may be true also 
that the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus does not 
contain any new truth, but it was truth just the same. 
Perhaps what is true is not new and what is new is not 
true. From what we know of the character of our Lord 
we have aright to believe that He would not have given 
utterance to what was not true. Jesus would not have 
assumed existence beyond the grave as here described, 
of persons, things and conditions which had no reality 
or existence. Jesus was not only the Way and the Life, 
but also the Truth.” He spake the very words of God 
and we know that the words of God are very truth.” 
What possible reason could Jesus have in preferring 
a fable to truth? Did He not know conditions as they 
existed in that other world? Knowing them, what ad- 
vantage could there be in giving an imaginary account 
instead of an actual one? What advantage could pos- 
sibly accrue from deception? It is true that on one oc- 
easion Jesus confessed a limitation in knowledge con- 
cerning the time of the day of the Lord.” But what 
He was ‘‘willingly ignorant’’ of He did not profess to 
teach as fact and truth; thus His silence was as wonder- 
ful as His speech. We should not forget, however, that 
what Jesus did give utterance to was absolute truth. 
What He did not know He kept silence about—a very 
good example for many to-day to follow. We conclude, 


™ John 14:6. 2 John 12: 48-50; 3: 34. 3 Mark 12: 32. 


64 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


therefore, that Jesus actually knew of conditions beyond 
the grave and in the intermediate state, and that in this 
story He gives us an accurate account of what was trans- 
piring over there.“ But even if the story of the Rich 
Man and Lazarus were a parable, it could be truth for 
all that. The Parable of the Sower is true even though 
couched in parabolic form, is it not? The early Chris- 
tian Church believed that Jesus was telling a true story 
when He told the people about Dives and Lazarus. 
Many Christian scholars maintain that Jesus was doubt- 
less reading out of the Book of Life * in which He found 
the name of Lazarus but not that of the Rich Man, and 
for that reason the Rich Man has been ealled ‘‘ Dives.”’ 
Jesus, however, did not name him. 

Now what does the story of Dives and Lazarus teach 
us regarding conditions beyond the grave and in the 
intermediate state in particular? Let us see. We can 
follow the Master in the events of the story in so far as 
they happen on this side of the grave. We can well 
picture to ourselves the Rich Man with whom every day 
was a festal day, who was always dressed in his Sunday 
best, and whose entire existence seemed to be one that 
centered about the questions: ‘‘ What shall I eat? What 
shall I drink? Wherewithal shall I be clothed?’’* The 
greater questions of life he seems to have entirely over- 
looked or wilfully neglected and ignored. His relations 
to both God and man he seems to have forgotten or 
repudiated in his greed and selfishness. It would have 
been pertinent for him to have propounded to himself 
the questions: ‘‘Am I worth feeding or dressing? Do 
I make a real return in and to life for the food, drink 
and clothing I am taking from it?’’ It is sad to say it, 


* John 3:11. % Rev. 20: 12-15. * Matt. 6: 31. 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 65 


but it is true, there are men and women who are not 
worth feeding or clothing. Life would be better without 
them. They are not worth the amount of food they 
eat nor the clothing they wear. They add nothing to 
the moral values of life. They but cater to its moral 
decay. Life would be much better without them. Such 
a being was this Rich Man. We ean easily follow him, 
I say, as the Master sketches his life, then his death and 
burial. We can follow the procession up to the edge of 
the grave, but there we stop; there our knowledge of 
what happened to him ceases. We are dependent upon 
the words of Jesus for a description of what happened 
after that. 

We can follow the story, too, so far as it relates to 
Lazarus. We can see him as he lies there at the gate of 
the Rich Man’s mansion. His body is a loathsome sight 
—‘‘full of sores.’? Hunger is gnawing at his very 
vitals. He craves for even the crumbs that are thrown 
to the dogs, but in vain does he thus plead. No man 
gave unto him. More pity and sympathy does he find 
from the dogs which came and licked his sores, than from 
his felowman. Death reaches him first. This is merei- 
ful, for it relieves him of his intense suffering, and at 
the same time gives Dives a longer chance for repent- 
ance. No funeral is accorded Lazarus as was provided, 
so we are told, for the Rich Man. Doubtless the body of 
the beggar was cast into the Potter’s Field. Was he not 
a pauper? Up to this point, then, we can follow Laza- 
rus, too. But beyond it, we must again listen to the 
words of Jesus would we know what happened to the 
poor beggar after he died. 

And we may thoroughly rely upon the words of Jesus 
as to the future, even as we are able to rely on them in 


66 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


so far as they pertain to matters in this life and within 
the realm of our experience. There is not a word that 
fell from the lips of Jesus regarding this life and which 
may be put to the proof in this life, that, when thus 
tested, is not found to be absolutely true. We can trust 
Him, then, as to what He teaches us regarding the future 
and things which are beyond our mere human ken, experi- 
ence and comprehension. ‘‘Let not your heart be trou- 
bled; ye believe in God; believe also in me. In my Fa- 
ther’s house are many mansions; if it were not so would I 
have told you?’’” I have put the closing phrase of this 
quotation in the interrogative rather than the affirmative 
form because I believe it is permissible to doit. It is as 
though Jesus said: ‘‘I want you to believe all I have 
told you about the future. Did I ever tell you any- 
thing that was not true? What I have told you of the 
present, and of that which comes within the realm of 
your present experience, has turned out to be true, has 
it not? So you ean depend upon what I have to say 
with regard to the future; were it not so I would not 
have told you, would I?’’ 

Of course we understand that the story of the Rich 
Man and Lazarus is not intended to give us a detailed 
account of life beyond the grave. Had that been its 
purpose Jesus would doubtless have gone more into de- 
tail. Indeed, it may be said that the primary purpose 
of Jesus in narrating this story was not that we might 
know what was going on in that other world—inci- 
dentally, of course, that is taught—but to show the awful 
penalty of a selfish, godless life, a life that ignores the 
need of man and its duty to God. And in doing this 
Jesus lifts up the curtain that divides this world from 


* John 14: I-3. 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 67 


the next and permits us to catch a glimpse of conditions 
there. 

What does this story teach us? In the first place, it 
is clear from it that there is an existence beyond the 
grave; that this life is not all; that there is another and 
larger life beyond the grave. Both religion and science 
agree in this. Death is not the end of everything; * 
it is but the beginning of something larger and more far- 
reaching. The soul does not cease to exist when it has 
left the body; it has but taken its first step into that 
other life, into the Great Hereafter. 

Man everywhere and always has believed in an exist- 
ence beyond the grave. Some years ago, Robert Inger- 
soll, the noted infidel, was lecturing all over the country, 
ridiculing the idea of a life beyond the grave. Lying 
dead in his casket, he was as faultlessly dressed in death 
as he had been in life. Some one passing by the casket, 
stopped, and remarked: ‘‘Poor Bob! All dressed up 
and nowhere to go.’’ But it is a very real question as 
to whether Ingersoll did not actually believe in an ex- 
istence after death. When he was accused of being an 
atheist, he denied it. ‘‘I am not an atheist,’’ he said. 
*‘T do not say there is no God. I am an agnostic; I do 
not know.’’ 

One is almost compelled to believe, however, when he 
reads Ingersoll’s oration at the graveside of his brother, 
that he did really believe in a future life. ‘‘Death is a 
narrow vale,’’ he said, ‘‘between the cold and barren 
peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look be- 
yond the heights. We ery aloud, and the only answer 
is the echo of our wailing ery. From the unreplying 
lips of the voiceless dead there comes no response. But 


8B Tuke 12: 3-5; Heb. 9: 27. 


68 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


in the hour of death hope sees a star and listening love 
hears the rustle of an angel’s wing. There was, there 
is, no greater man than my brother.’’ I think we see 
here something which lay underneath all Ingersoll’s so- 
called infidelity. At heart, he believed in an existence 
beyond the grave. ‘This speech, we believe, so declares it. 

‘‘Tf a man die, he shall live again.’’* These are the 
words of Job and once again I put them in the affirma- 
tive rather than the interrogative form because they as- 
sert the certainty of the patriarch’s belief in the future 
life. This is clear from the words which follow this bold 
affirmation: ‘‘I will wait until my release cometh. . . . 
Thou wilt call and I will answer thee. . . . I know 
that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the 
latter day upon the earth. . . . WhomTI shall see for 
myself, and mine eyes shall behold.’’” 

In the story of Dives and Lazarus, Jesus is speaking 
of the Intermediate, not the Final State; of the Near, not 
the Far, Hereafter. He is not speaking of hell but of 
hades; not of the final and ultimate abode of the 
righteous in the day of the new heaven and the new 
earth, but of the intermediate state of the righteous 
while awaiting that glorious day. This fact shouldn’t 
be overlooked. He is speaking of conditions as they ex- 
isted previous to His own death and resurrection. The 
death and resurrection of Jesus made great changes in 
conditions in that other world, the Intermediate State, 
especially as they pertained to the righteous dead as we 
shall see later in these pages. The conditions Jesus here 
describes are running parallel with conditions which are 
existent upon the earth during the lifetime of Dives and 
Lazarus. Dives’ brethren are still living the same selfish 


* Job 14: 14. * Tob 19: 26. 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 69 


lives they lived when he was with them, and so he re- 
quests that Lazarus be sent unto them to warn them lest 
they also come to the place of torment in which Dives 
now finds himself.” 

Both Dives and Lazarus are conscious in that_inter- 
mediate state. There is no intimation here of soul- 
sleeping nor annihilation. They are speaking, feeling, 
thinking much as they did on earth—at least the Rich 
Man is, as his language clearly shows. He is as con- 
scious of conditions in the Hereafter state as he seems 
to be of conditions existing at his home on the earth 
among his brothers. 

Dives is said to be ‘‘tormented.’’* That implies con- 
sciousness surely. You cannot punish a stone, or any- 
thing unconscious. Doubtless he had been tormented 
while here upon the earth. No man ean live the 
utterly selfish life he lived and be as hard-hearted to 
the ery of the poor as he was and not have moments 
when his heart and conscience give him some trouble. 
When he was alone with his thoughts he had had his 
moments of torment. But his wealth and position af- 
forded him so many opportunities of easing that torment. 
He could go to the club and the theatre; he could visit 
his friends; travel North in the summer and South in 
the winter; these, and many other things he could do to 
‘‘take his mind off’’ his troubles and forget the things 
which caused him torment. There were countless ways 
in which he could ease himself of his burden and forget, 
at least for the time being. But now, in the state in 
which he finds himself in that other life, all the things 
which might alleviate his torment are absent; he is alone 
with himself, his conscience, the memory of his misdeeds 


4 Tuke 16:27, 28 “TLuke 16: 23, 25. 


70 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


and lost opportunities, and, for many a man, yea and 
every man such as he, this is ‘‘torment’’ indeed, even 


| should there be no physical, bodily pain in that condi- 


| 


tion. 

Lazarus is said to be ‘‘comforted.’?™ Doubtless he 
had had his seasons of comfort while on the earth, brief 
though, perhaps, they were. His physical condition was 
so direful, his body so sick, his mind so depressed, so 
many reverses came to him, so many afflictions seem to 
have fallen to his sad lot that his comfort was greatly 
interfered with. But now, in ‘‘paradise,’’ in Abraham’s 
bosom, where he now finds himself, in this new stage of 
existence in life beyond the grave into which he has now 
entered, all these dire calamities have no place, hence his 
comfort is not marred as it was while on the earth. So 
he is comforted. 

Dives, it should be noted, is conscious also of the awful 

condition of his brothers. His words concerning them 


show censure, because, perchance, he felt they had 


not been sufficiently warned as to this awful state 
beyond the grave; or it may be that he is really con- 
cerned about the sad moral condition of his brethren. 
Whatever construction may be placed on his words it is 
clearly evident that he was conscious as to the character 
of conditions then existing in his former home. 

Surely no doctrine of the intercession of the saints 
can be based on these words of Dives. In the first place 
this is not a saint who is interceding; again, the plea 
was ineffectual. And it may be that he is rather fault- 
finding than interceding.™ 

So far as memory is concerned there seems to be no 
break between this life and that beyond the grave. 


8 Thid. *4Tuke 16: 28, 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 71 


Dives is called upon to remember how he lived while on 
the earth and his heartless attitude towards his needy 
neighbour.” So we may understand in this connection, 
as stated in the earlier pages of this book, that per- 
sonality is more than brain. Here we see that there is 
apparently no break in memory. Dives is the same per- 
sonality he was when on earth. Death had not destroyed 
his personality. A man will be himself throughout the 
endless ages of eternity. He can never get away from 
himself. ‘‘Handle me and see that it is I, myself.’’* 

Death does not change the bent of my life and char- 
acter; it fixes it. I will be in the next world what I am 
when death finds me in this—only more so, as we shall 
see later in our discussion. What our bent of life and 
the nature of our choices were during our earthly life 
and when death found us, that we shall be, only in- 
creasingly so, in the great Near Hereafter. Our char- 
acter has determined our destiny and condition. So 
far as we know, this earthly life is our sole probationary 
period.” The use to which a man puts his life while 
here on earth determines its condition and character in 
that after life. 

Here is an interesting paraphrase of Revelation 22:11: 
**He that is set on being unrighteous, let him be free to 
wholly follow his choice, even here, and do unrighteous- 
ness, and it will be with an ever-increasing momentum. 
And he that is set in his choice to go on to the un- 
restrained depths of lustful passion to indulgence, shall 
be left utterly free to follow that choice, and it will be 
found that the slant down gets steadily steeper and 
sharper. He that is set on following only the righteous 
and good and pure will be wholly free to follow 


% Tuke 16: 25. 6 Tuke 24: 39. at Of 2) Cnr ae 


— 


72 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


the bent of his choices with an ever-increasing bent of 
momentum upward. And he‘that will choose to climb 
the hill towards the highest peak of personal purity and 
holiness, perfection of character, will have the fullest 
freedom in following his bent or choice; and he will find, 
too, the steepest heights more easily climbed as he goes 
up. And when Jesus comes He will give to every man 
according as his choice has been.’’™ | 

God has ordained that man shall be a free agent; that 
he shall make his own choices, be they good or bad. And 
thus it will ever be. The bent of a man’s life is that 
which he himself has chosen, and that bent decides what 
his character shall be, and that character, in turn, de- 
termines what his condition and destiny in the other life 
shall be. God has always dealt with man along the line 
of this fundamental principle of free agency. God did 
not compel Adam to obedience; He left him free to 
choose it. So has it been with every other person since 
Adam. God will not interfere with that human preroga- 
tive, so far as the individual himself is concerned. There 
are times when God steps in and interferes with the de- 
praved will of man, when that will might seem to in- 
terfere with His redemptive purposes (as in the ease of 
Joseph and his brethren) ;” but even in that case, God 
rather overrules than interferes with human freedom. 
A man by his own individual choices decides what his 
acts shall be; those acts form his character, and these, 
in turn, his destiny for the future. Man himself, not 
God, has decided it.” 

In a very real sense, then, it cannot be said that God 
sends any man to hell. The man who goes there has 


*°S. D. Gordon. * Gen, 37 with 50: 190, 20. 
80 See 1 Kings 20: 40. 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 73 


chosen that destiny for himself. There is a law of gravi- 
tation in the spiritual, even as in the natural world. 
Every man has his own place; every man finds his own 
place, and every man goes to his own place. It is written 
of Judas that ‘‘he might go to his own place;’’” of Peter, 
when he was released from prison, that ‘‘he went to his 
own company’’*—a band of praying people. So it is 
ever with man. He himself decides his destiny and his 
future. And it should not be forgotten that, so far as 
we know, this life is the sole probationary period in which 
a man decides the matter of his future destiny. Over 
there there is ‘‘a great gulf fixed’’; change from one 
condition to another is impossible. A man decides for 
himself on which side of the gulf he will find himself in 
that other life. 

Sometimes we hear men, in speaking of the future, say: 
**Well, I’ll take my chances on getting a safe place in 
that other world.’’ Well, my friend, your choice is your 
chance and your chance is your choice. Your choice 
now is your chance then. You will find yourself where 
you have chosen to be. You have a chance of changing 
now, but there will be no such chance once you have 
passed over the line into the Great Hereafter. This is 
the thought that gives seriousness to living and imposes 
on one a deep sense of moral obligation for the choices 
one makes in life. No man’s life or destiny, either here 
or in that other world, is an accident; nor does it come 
about casually, or by chance, or at random. It is the 
result of deliberate choices on his part. Such expres- 
sions as ‘‘should it fall to one’s lot,’’ ‘‘be one’s fate,’’ 
‘should one stumble on, or light upon,’’ ‘‘ blunder or hit 
upon,’’ are ruled out in the consideration of our sub- 


** Acts 1:25. 82 Acts 12: 12, 


74 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


ject. A man’s future destiny will be the result of his 
own inclinations, intentions, purposes, and options. It 
will be the outgrowth and consequence of his own mind, 
wish, pleasure, bent and disposition. 

What is a ‘‘chance’’? It has been defined as an op- 
portunity. Strictly speaking, a chance has in it the two- 
fold idea of the absence of an assigned cause, and the 
absence of an apparent design. It is something unin- 
tentional, accidental, unintended ; something undesigned, 
at random, purposeless. But no such elements enter 
into the deciding of a man’s future life and existence 
beyond the grave. God gives opportunity to every man 
here to choose life or death, heaven or hell, bliss or woe. 
Any final sentence that may be pronounced by God on 
man ean be but the result of the man’s own deliberate 
choice, or the result of his bad choices in life. 

Another thing we should remember in this connection, 
and that is, that the power to choose good lessens with 
every yielding to evil; yea, even the power to exercise 
choice at all, whether for good or bad, is lessened with 
the refusal of a man to exercise that power; ultimately 
it will result in its loss. Even in nature we know it to 
Ibe true that when any power is not used, or is abused, 
lit atrophies. There is a lessening, a shrinking, an at- 
tenuation, an emaciation of those parts that are not 
used. So the fakir in India loses the use of the arm he 
‘has declined to use for years. So with fishes in the 
‘Mammoth Cave in Kentucky; they have eyeballs and eye- 
‘sockets, but no sight, for there has been no use of those 
organs. So the man who constantly refuses to choose 
the good will eventually be unable to choose it and the 
choice to evil will be the permanent thing in his life; 
indeed he will become mere driftwood. ‘‘He that is un- 


- “ 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 75 


just, let him be unjust more and more. He that is filthy, 
let him be filthy more and more. He that is holy, let 
him be holy more and more. He that is righteous, let 
him be righteous more and more.’’™ ‘This is not only 
Scripture truth; it is also true in nature, science and 
psychology. 

We are now familiar with what may be ealled the 
science of chances. Men have reduced the matter of 
taking chances to a science. So all large financial and 
insurance companies employ men who devote their entire 
time to the matter of taking chances. These men are 
called actuaries. They are experts in the matter of 
chanees. Their findings are based on observable facts 
and circumstances in life as viewed by them. They feel 
quite confident that they know what will happen under 
certain given circumstances in life, and on the decisions 
of these experts very large sums of money are invested 
or withheld from investment by these large financial and 
insurance companies. If the company chooses to go 
against the advice of the experts on chances, then it is 
the company’s fault and loss. Only very rarely, if at 
all, is such a hazardous risk taken. The man who goes 
against the advice of these men is playing a losing game, 
and the chances of winning are against him. 

So is it with reference to the things of the soul. A 
man’s chance in his choice. God has determined that by 
a law that is absolutely unerring, trustworthy, reliable, 
self-evident and axiomatic. God will judge every man 
according as his choices have been. No man need de- 
lude himself on that score. If we fail to make our 
ehoice for God, Christ, religion, prayer, the Bible, the 
Church, and righteousness here, there will be no chance 


Rev. 22:11 (R. V.); see Matt. 25: 28, 20. 


76 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


to do so in the Hereafter, for we would not use the 
chance there, even were it offered to us, any more than 
we used it here when it was offered to us. So even if 
the love of God, which we say is ‘‘broader than the 
measure of man’s mind,’’ were to result in extending to 
us another chance in the Hereafter—for which we have 
no Scriptural warrant—what reason have we to believe 
that man would accept it? The law of chances is against 
him. He is taking a risk when ‘‘the chances are all 
against him,’’ when there is not the slightest chance of 
his winning. He is a fool, and not a clever fool at that. 
He is ‘‘ playing a losing game’’—a game that is doomed 
to be lost by every law of ‘‘chances.’’ 

‘*Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed.’’ 
How solemn these words! Death is the fixing time. 
Jesus said: ‘‘If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die 
in your sins, and whither I go ye cannot come.’’* Can- 
not come! How different similar words addressed to 
Peter: ‘‘ Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but 
thou shalt follow me hereafter.’?* Never can the man 
who dies impenitently and without receiving the Christ 
offered to him go ‘‘to be with Christ.’’ That is a matter 
forever settled by the infallible words of the great 
Teacher Himself: ‘‘ And beside all this, betwixt us and 
you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would 
pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to 
us that would come from thence.’’”® What language 
can be more decisive than that? 

Study the Sermon on the Mount and note what Jesus 
has to say about ‘‘The Two Ways:’’ * life and death. 
Nowhere, at any point, do these two ways converge. 


* John 8: 24. ® John 13: 36; cf. 16: 20-22, 
*Tuke 16: 26. ot Matt. p7 ira. 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 77 


They are forever separate: one leading to Life, the other 
to Death. In the same sermon, Jesus calls on men to 
practise moral and spiritual surgery or they will be lost. 
He calls upon men to pluck out the right eye, cut off the 
right hand and foot if these lead to sin. He then tells 
us the reason: ‘‘It is better to enter into Life [eternal 
life beyond| maimed, rather than having two eyes, two 
hands, two feet, to be cast into hell-fire, where their 
worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched’’ (refer- 
ring to the future state of the lost).“ Here is a clear 
statement that once a man has crossed the line from this 
life into the Hereafter without having made the necessary 
preparation there is no hope of recovery or of his ever 
entering into Life. ‘‘ When once the master of the house 
is risen up and shut to the door,’’ those on the outside 
knock in vain for entrance. The voice of the Master 
will exclaim: ‘‘Depart from me, I know you not.’’” 
Death closes the opportunity of change from death to life 
eternal. The judgment is for the deeds done in the 
body,” and that means during man’s probationary period 
on the earth while he was in the body, not while he is 
in the intermediate state and his body is corrupting in 
the grave. 

Dying time, then, is fixing time. Let us not forget 
that. When death overtakes a man and finds him unfit 
for the presence of God, then his doom is settled, his 
fate sealed, his destiny fixed irrevocably and forever. 
His nature, character and disposition have become 
stereotyped. He will be unholy ‘‘still’’; unrighteous 
*‘still.’’ The loss of the soul is irretrievable.” The 
germ of sin in the lost man has become ineradicable, the 


*® Mark 9: 43-50. ®Tuke 13: 24-28. 
“2 Cor. 5:10; cf. Rev. 20: 12. @ Mark 8: 37. 


78 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


stain of his iniquity indelible, and the bond which unites 
him to his wrong choices indissoluble. There is no more 
chance for him to change than for the leopard to change 
his spots or the Ethiopian his skin.” The judgment pro- 
nounced upon him is as unchangeable as the law of the 
Medes and the Persians, which altereth not.* When the 
unrepentant man is called upon to cross his Jordan, his 
Stygian shore, when once he has “‘ecrossed the bar,’’ then 
life’s bark will lie stranded, aground, transfixed upon 
the farther shore, a wreck of what might have been. 
Nor will there be any tide to lift that bark from yonder 
bar; no, not forever. O, how solemn a thing is life! 
What use are we making of this probationary period? 

‘*To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’’ These 
words were spoken by our Lord as He hung upon the 
Cross. They were addressed to the dying thief at His 
side. By a wondrous flash of faith the penitent thief 
had come to see in the crucified Christ the coming King, 
and, in the glow of that faith, exclaimed: ‘‘Lord, re- 
member me when thou comest into thy kingdom.’’ It 
was in reply to this great flight of faith that Jesus ut- 
tered the words we are now to consider: ‘‘ Verily, I say 
unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’’ 

So this is where the soul of Jesus went immediately 
after it left His body and where it remained during the 
time the body was in the tomb in Joseph’s garden. 
‘To-day . . . with me in paradise.’’? ‘‘Thou wilt 
not leave my soul in hades, neither wilt thou suffer thine 
Holy One to see corruption.’’ “ 

But where and what is paradise? There are four 
paradises mentioned in the Bible. The first was in 


Fete 13% 23. “Dan. 6: 12. 
* Acts 2: 27. 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 79 


Eden; * the second below the earth;“ the third is now 
above—Paul was ‘‘caught up into paradise’’;“ the 
fourth will again be on the earth in the days succeeding 
the millennium.” 

“‘To-day . . . With mein paradise.’’ At the time 
of Christ, the intermediate state, the abode of the dead, 
whether righteous or unrighteous, was below the earth. 
The Apostles’ Creed refers to Christ as having ‘‘de- 
scended into hades.’’ Peter, in his first Epistle, declares 
that ‘‘Christ was put to death in the flesh, but quickened 
in the Spirit, by which also he went and preached unto 
the spirits in prison; which sometimes were disobedient, 
when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days 
of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, 
that is, eight souls were saved by water.’’® ‘‘For for 
this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are 
dead, that they might be judged according to men in the 
flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.’?® Paul 
also refers to Christ’s descent into paradise, when, in his 
letter to the Ephesians, he says: ‘‘ Now that he ascended, 
what is it but that he also descended first into the lower 
parts of the earth?’’™ Perhaps also the expression: 
‘‘He led captivity captive,’’” may have reference to this 
same event—the descent into hades, to the upper part 
of it. 

The abode or world of the dead, in the time of Christ, 
was called ‘‘sheol’’ (Hebrew) and ‘‘hades’’ (Greek). 
It was divided into two parts: an upper and a lower. 
The upper part was called ‘‘ paradise,’’” or ‘‘ Abraham’s 
bosom ;’’™ the lower part was ‘‘hades,’’ strictly so-called. 

pasen. 2°98: Ezek. 28:13. “Luke 23:43. “2 Cori tata 


= Rey. 2:7: 21: I0. “'r Pet. 3:18. “2-Pet 4:6. 
Peon a9, "Eph.4:8 “Luke 23:43. ™“Lukew6: 22.1, 


80 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


Into this ‘‘paradise’’ the souls of the righteous went, 
while the souls of the wicked found their abode in hades 
proper.” But let us not forget that the whole abode 
was given the general name of “‘hades’’ or ‘‘sheol,’’ 
even though, speaking more particularly, there were the 
two divisions with their respective names referred to. 
Over this entire realm Satan held sovereignty: ‘‘ Foras- 
much then as the children are partakers of flesh and 
blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; 
that through death he might destroy him that had the 
power [or sovereignty] over death, that is, the devil, 
and deliver them who through fear of death were all their 
lifetime subject to bondage.’’” Jesus Christ by His 
death rendered the power of Satan over that realm in- 
operative; He took from him the keys of death: ‘‘I am 
he that liveth, and became dead; and, behold, I am alive 
for evermore; and have the keys of hades and of 
death.’?" And so ‘‘having spoiled principalities and 
powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over 
them in it,’’~ that is, in His Cross. The hostile powers 
of sin, death and darkness Jesus overcame and lashed 
them as captives to the wheels of His victorious chariot. 

It seems to be the teaching of the Word of God that 
Jesus, between the time of His death, resurrection, and 
appearance to Mary and the disciples, went and visited 
hades, the region and abode of the dead. The infidel, 
Celsus, ridiculed the belief of the Early Chureh in the 
visit of Christ to hades and His preaching to the spirits 
there. He says: ‘‘I suppose your Master when He 
failed to persuade the living had to try to persuade the 
dead.’’ To which Origen replied: ‘‘Whether it please 

55 ‘ 56 . 
ere Rann: "Col 21s 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 81 


Celsus or not, we of the Church assert that the soul of 
our Lord, stripped of its body, held converse with other 
souls that He might convert those capable of instruc- 
tion.’’? Tertullian and Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, pic- 
ture Christ not only among the souls of those who had 
been disobedient, but also holding blessed intercourse 
with those who had struggled after right and who had 
not seen His face on the earth. They picture how the 
holy prophets ran to our Lord; how Abraham, Jacob, 
Moses, Samuel, David and John the Baptist, and others 
ran to Him with the ery, ‘‘O, death, where is thy sting! 
O, grave, where is thy victory! for the Conqueror has 
redeemed us!’’* 

Did the visit of Christ to the intermediate state make 
any changes in the condition of the dead there? Did 
He preach the Gospel to those in the lower part—hades 
proper, in a way that constituted an offer of salvation 
to those who heard it?” Or was the proclamation but 
a heralding of His victory over sin, death, the grave, the 
devil and all the powers of darkness—a victory won 
through His death and resurrection? Was the ‘‘preach- 
ing of the gospel to them that are dead’’ “—to those in 
the upper part—paradise, Abraham’s bosom, a definite 
and deliberate liberating of the souls of the righteous, 
which up to that time had been in the power of Satan, 
and a taking of such souls with Him into the glory, in 
other words, a leading of captivity captive? Many such 
questions cluster about the subject of Christ’s visit to the 
realm of the dead. Perhaps they cannot be answered to 
the satisfaction of all concerned, and perhaps this is not 
the place to enter into an exhaustive study of the many 


5° See Smyth, “Gospel of the Hereafter.” 
7 Pet. 3:18. 1 Pet. 4:6. 


82 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


phases of the subject. Something, however, should be 
said, for our theme demands it, even though it be but a 
brief word about the matter, for it properly comes 
within the sphere of our study at this time of life beyond 
the grave. 

In the first place, let us consider the visit of Christ 
to the lower part of hades—the abode of the unrighteous 
dead, the ungodly and disobedient, those described by 
Peter as being ‘‘disobedient in the days of Noah,’’ etc.® 
Hades proper was the abode of such: not paradise nor 
Abraham’s bosom, mark you, but hades. Of course the 
reference to those of Noah’s day does not mean that only 
such were there, but that they were samples” of the 
class there: all that had lived disobedient and ungodly 
lives. That this was a visit to lost souls, seems clear, 
irrespective of what the purpose of that visit was. 

Two opinions are held with regard to Christ’s visit to 
the region of lost souls: One, that Christ, during that 
visit, made a bona fide offer of salvation to such, and so 
those in hades were given another or a second chance to 
be saved—at least those were who had never had the 
opportunity of hearing the story of Christ and His 
Cross; and all this so that when they stood before the 
throne for judgment they would have no excuse to offer; 
so reference is made in Peter’s text, to their being 
judged.“ The other school of interpreters maintains that 
there is no second offer of salvation taught here, but that 
Jesus visited the realm of the dead in order to herald 
His victory, not to preach His Gospel, our attention being 
drawn to the fact that while the Greek word here trans- 
lated ‘‘preached’’ is often used for the preaching of the 
Gospel, yet it is not the usual one for ‘‘evangelization’’; 


@1 Pet. 3:18. ® See 2 Pet. 2:6, “1 Pet. 4:6. 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 83 


that it is the word the gladiator uses when he is pro- 
claiming his victory over his opponent; so Christ 
heralded His victory over Satan, death, the grave, prin- 
cipalities and powers when He made that visit, and 
there the matter ended so far as the unrighteous were 
eoncerned. There are still others who maintain that the 
reference to spirits here is to fallen angels, such as are 
referred to in Genesis as ‘‘the sons of God,’’” and such 
as ‘‘kept not their first estate but left their own habita- 
tion.’’“ Still others make it refer to the preaching of 
Enoch in antedeluvian times. 

May it not be that the two passages in Peter refer to 
the two visits Jesus made to the realm of the dead ?—the 
first describing His visit to hades proper, the lower part, 
to proclaim His victory over sin, Satan, death and all 
His foes; the second, portraying His visit to the upper 
part of hades, called ‘‘paradise’’ and ‘‘Abraham’s 
bosom,’’ in order not only to proclaim His victory over 
death but also to take all those righteous souls, which 
up to this time had been held captive by ‘‘him that had 
the power over death, that is, the devil,’? “ with Him into 
the glory, and so lead captivity captive,” so that now the 
souls of the righteous go to the paradise which is above, 
where Christ is, the upper part of hades being now 
empty? We ask, may not these be the two great truths 
taught by Peter in his epistle? To us it certainly seems 
so. But we would not be over-dogmatic here. The word 
used for ‘‘preached’’ in the second reference in Peter, 
and which refers to the visit to the abode of the souls 
of the righteous, is the ordinary word for the proclama- 
tion of the ‘‘good news.’’ Certain it is that when the 


® Gen. 6: 4. % Tude 1:6. 
* Heb. 2: 14. “Eph: 42: 


84 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


believer in Christ now dies he goes to be with Christ; ® 
he is at home with the Lord,” in the paradise which is 
now above. And we think it is not stretching the real 
meaning of the Scripture to say that all the Old Testa- 
ment saints, which up to the time of Christ’s death and 
resurrection were in that upper part of hades, are now 
with Christ in paradise above, as trophies and first- 
fruits of His glorious victory.” 

Referring a little more in particular to Christ’s visit 
to the upper part of hades, we may say that it seems very 
clear from the Scriptures that the death and resurrection 
of Jesus made tremendous changes in the world of the 
dead, that is, of the righteous dead. Jesus said to the 
disciples: ‘‘In my Father’s house are many mansions. I 
go to prepare a place for you.’’” Evidently, then, that 
place in heaven was not yet prepared. ~~ Even the soul of 
Jesus went to hades and not to heaven, during the days 
His body rested in the tomb.” But after those three 
days a tremendous change took place in regard to the 
condition of the righteous dead. ‘‘And, behold, the veil 
of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the 
bottom; and the earth did quake and the rocks rent; and 
the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints 
which slept arose, and came out of their graves after 
his resurrection, and went into the holy city and ap- 
peared unto many.’’™ These saints, it may be assumed, 
were those, or at least among those who ascended with 
Christ on high when He led captivity captive.” 

That the Old Testament saints were waiting for the 
finished work of Christ in order to their perfection is 

© Phil. ‘y* ot: 9 2 Cor.i5 2S. ™* See Heb. 12: 22, 23. 


@jJohn 14:1-3 ® Me ae i ™ Matt. 27: 51-53. 
ph. 4:8. 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 85 


clear from a consideration of certain passages in the 
Scriptures. It was evidently in the divine plan that 
these Old Testament saints should not be made perfect 
without us: ‘‘And these all having obtained a good 
report through faith, received not the promise; God hav- 
ing provided some better thing for us, that they without 
us should not be made perfect.’’ The Old Testament 
saints, then, were waiting for an event which would per- 
fect them. Now, in that light, let us note these wonder- 
ful words: ‘‘But ye are come unto mount Zion and to 
the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and 
to the spirits of just men made perfect.’’?” Does it not 
seem then as though some wonderful event had taken 
place whereby these imperfect men were made perfect? 
We think so. 

What was that thing? Let us see. So long as 
the veil that separated the Holy from the Most Holy 
Place was remaining, the way into the presence of 
God was not open to all; the high priest alone could thus 
come before God. Perfection, therefore, was impossible 
through the Levitical priesthood, ‘‘the Holy Ghost thus 
signifying that the way into the holiest was not yet made 
manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 
which was a figure for the time then present, in which 
were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make 
him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the 
conscience.’’“ Thus we see that the death of Christ by 
which the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the 
top to the bottom,” brought perfection to those who so 
long had been waiting for it. This we believe to be the, 
or an, explanation as to what took place in relation to 


® Heb. 11: 30, 40. Y Heb. 127 2224. 
*® Heb. 9:8, 9. ® Matt. 27:51; Heb. 9:3. 


86 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


the souls of the righteous and Christ’s visit to them in 
that upper part of hades. Since that time the saints of 
both Old and New Testaments have immediate access into 
the presence of God; the ‘‘place’’ has now been pre- 
pared; Jesus has fulfilled the promise He made to His 
disciples.” 

Let us look now a little into the nature and purpose 
of Christ’s visit to the lower part of the world of the 
dead—hades proper, the abode of the lost. We have 
already mentioned that there is a difference of opinion 
as to the purpose of that visit. Some maintain that an 
offer of salvation was made, while others look upon the 
purpose as being one in which Christ merely proclaimed 
His victory over sin, death, Satan and all His foes. But 
a word should be said here as to the doctrine of a second 
chance which is said to have been given to the lost in 
hades. It is referred to in some quarters as ‘‘that larger 
hope.’’ Is it true that Jesus really made a genuine offer 
of salvation during that visit? Is it true that a man 
who has had a chance to accept Jesus Christ as his per- 
sonal Saviour and has refused to do so, will have another 
opportunity in the next life? And do we find in this 
incident narrating Christ’s visit to hades any ground for 
such a hope? In the preceding pages sufficient has been 
said to indicate just where the writer stands with regard 
to this life being the sole, probationary period. He 
believes the issues of eternity are settled in this life and 
by the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. 

There are some preachers, teachers and writers who 
have expressed themselves with regard to the heathen and 
those who, like them, have never had the opportunity of 
either accepting or rejecting Jesus Christ—such as con- 


© John 14:1-3; Heb. 11: 16. 


a” OE de - — 


2 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 87 


stitute the third class of beings in the intermediate state, 
and perhaps by far the largest class. What such writers 
and preachers have to say ought to be considered as 
purely speculative, yet it has been accepted in many 
eircles as a reasonable hypothesis. It is the opinion of 
the author that such speculation should be noted and 
answered. Of course it is assumed that no doctrine of 
the faith can be based on inference or speculation. The 
Christian must have an undisputedly clear passage of 
Divine Writ on which to base his faith. This is con- 
ceeded. And what are called ‘‘fair inferences’’ are to be 
cautiously guarded. We should, however, know the 
position of others with regard to the future state in order 
to correct any misconceptions regarding the matter. For 
this reason, therefore, we mention them. 

There are, we may suppose, three classes of people in 
the intermediate state: Those who have believed in God. 
and accepted Christ as their Saviour when He was pro- 
claimed to them; those who have wilfully rejected Christ 
and His claims when they were presented to them; and 
those who have never heard of Christ and, consequently, 
have neither accepted nor rejected those claims, the op- 
portunity of doing so having never been afforded them. 
As to the first class, we may say with certainty that they 
are safe with Christ, and at home with the Lord. With 
regard to the wilful rejectors of Christ, I think it has 
been clearly shown in these pages that their period of 
probation ended with their death, so that for them there 
is no second chance, no larger hope. Were it possible 
even, as we have intimated some do hope, that the love 
of God should offer to them another opportunity of 
accepting Christ—which, from the Seriptures, we see no 
reason to believe He will—the odds are all against their 


88 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


availing themselves of the opportunity; they would 
doubtless do what they did here: reject it. 

But what about the third class—those who have never 
heard of Christ and so have not had the opportunity of 
accepting or rejecting Him and His claims? What is 
to become of them? ‘‘Is it possible,’’? we are asked, ‘‘is 
it likely that God may give to them an opportunity of 
hearing of Christ and of accepting Him?’’ We are as- 
sured that this would not be a second chance; it would 
be their first. And even with regard to this class we are 
informed there should be no doubt that the principle of 
choice which has already been enunciated would control 
choice and destiny there and then. Given a man who 
had never heard of Christ during his earthly life, but 
yet followed the light that God gave him, the probabili- 
ties are that he would do the same in that other life 
when the light was offered him. But if a man of this 
elass did not follow the light God gave him when he 
was on the earth, but chose darkness and disobedience 
instead, the probabilities are that he would do the same 
with reference to any offer of light that might be made 
to him in the Hereafter. The same principle of choice, 
we are told, applies there even as here :—that death does 
not change character and bent; it but fixes them. May 
not a follower of light here be the same there; and a 
rejector of light be the same there? And may it not be 
that this is what Origen has reference to, when, in his 
reply to Celsus, he refers to those in that other world who 
were capable of instruction—those who followed the light 
as they had it when on earth? Such is the argument 
presented. 

We are asked then to consider, in this connection, the 
words of Jesus regarding those favoured cities of Galilee 


SS Oe ee eee 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 89 


which had witnessed His life and mighty works: ‘‘ Then 
began he to upbraid the cities in which most of his 
mighty works were done, because they repented not. 
Woe unto thee Chorazin! Woe unto thee Bethsaida! 
for if the mighty works which have been done in you 
had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have re- 
pented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto 
you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the 
day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, 
which art exalted unto heaven, thou shalt be brought 
down to hell; for if the mighty works which have been 
done in thee had been done in Sodom it would have re- 
mained unto this day. But I say unto you that it shall 
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of 
judgment than for you.’’® 

We are, further, asked to consider what Jesus meant 
by these words? Did He mean to say that Tyre, Sidon, 
Sodom, Nineveh and Gomorrah had not had the chance 
that Bethsaida and Capernaum and the cities that had 
seen and felt His ministry but had not responded to it 
had been given? Did He mean that we should infer 
that had these cities been given such an opportunity they 
would have embraced it and repented? And would it 
be fair to infer, knowing what we do of the righteous- 
ness of God, from these words of Jesus, that such an 
opportunity may (not necessarily shall) be offered to 
them before they come up to judgment? Was such an 
offer made to this class of people when Christ visited 
the lower part of hades? Is that an opportunity being 
offered to such now and will it continue to be offered? 
We are reminded ‘‘that no reference is here being made 
to the class of wilful rejectors, nor even to those who 


81 Matt. II : 20-24. 


90 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


among the class that have not had the opportunity of 
hearing Christ’s Gospel but who yet did not follow the 
light they had but rejected it while on earth, but only 
to those among this class who did follow the light they 
had even though it came short of the light of the Gospel 
of Christ which they never had the chance to hear.’’ 

These are interesting questions and problems and will 
never be finally settled by men. Eternity alone will 
reveal the solution, and answer be given to the satisfac- 
tion of all. We know that the Judge of all the earth 
will do right.” We can safely leave these problems with 
Him, while we seek to do our duty in taking the Gospel 
to the uttermost parts of the earth. 

Carey, Moffat, Brainerd, Hudson Taylor, Judson— 
these great pioneer missionaries believed that without 
Christ the heathen were lost. Theology may have 
changed its views on that question somewhat during these 
later years, but it remains yet to be proven that these 
missionaries were wrong. They believed that ‘‘as many 
aS have sinned without law, shall also perish without 
law ;’’* that ‘‘he that knew not his lord’s will and yet 
did things worthy of stripes shall be punished with few 
stripes;’’ that there will be different degrees of punish- 
ment, and a different standard of judgment for those 
who have had the light of the Gospel and those who have 
not. But these missionaries believed that all men out- 
side of the redemption that is in Jesus Christ are lost; 
that only the Gospel of Christ can save; that, in the last 
analysis, men are lost not because they have rejected 
Christ but because they are sinners;™ that Christ alone 
can save; that men are by nature lost and condemned, 


” Gen. 18:25; Psa. 11:7: 2 Tim. 4:8. 8 Rom. 2:12. 
8 Rom. 1:18, 28. 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 91 


and that, so far as we know, unless they receive Jesus 
as Saviour, that condemnation remains. What God may 
or may not do in the case of those who have never heard 
the Gospel we leave to Him. Our duty is to evangelize, 
not to speculate. We have our marching orders: 
‘‘Preach the gospel to every creature.’’™ Let us obey 
those orders, and be slow to accept any doctrine that 
would rob us of our missionary incentive to evangelize 
the heathen because of any unwarranted assumption that 
God will or may take care of them in some special way 
at the Judgment. 

What are our loved ones doing in the intermediate 
state? Here is another very interesting question and 
difficult, perhaps impossible, to answer satisfactorily to 
_ all, Here again ignorance has to be confessed as to any 
clear, unequivocal, positive teaching of the Bible in an- 
swer to this question. Inferences there are, and perhaps 
logical ones which may lead some to a practical cer- 
tainty, but inferences they remain. One may say, ‘‘ Why 
then not leave the subject alone and quit speculating 
and inferring?’’ That would be an easy way out of the 
matter, but it would be to deny the deepest instincts of 
the soul any chance to be heard. We are constantly 
asking questions about the condition of our loved ones 
in the other life. We cannot help it. To be interested 
at all in the Hereafter is to ask questions abont it. 

What are the inferences which many think fairly de- 
ducible from the general teaching of the Bible on which 
we may make some statements regarding the matter? 
Of some things we may be absolutely sure. Our dead 
in Christ are with the Lord, present and at home with 
Him; they are safe in His keeping and happy in His 

Mark 16:16; Matt. 28: 18, 109. 


92 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


love. And that, of course, is wonderful. Where Jesus 
is is heaven. So in attempting to answer this question 
we may again have to depend upon inferences made from 
certain Scriptures dealing with the future life. 

‘‘Do our loved ones in that intermediate state know 
what is transpiring on this earth?’’ That is a question 
which is continually being asked, especially by those who 
have had loved ones leave them for that other land. If 
the reader is not already tired of the word ‘‘inferences’’ 
may we dare to again refer to it in connection with this 
phase of our subject. It would be difficult to point to 
any Seripture that most emphatically and beyond the 
shadow of a doubt, answers this question. The best we 
can do is to hope that certain fair inferences may be 
true. 

It is certain that Dives in hades knew Lazarus, and 
Abraham, too,” for that matter, from which we may 
infer that we shall know more there than we did here, 
just as the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration 
knew Moses and Elias whom they had never seen.” 
‘‘Now we know in part; then shall we fully know.’’® 
Moses and Elijah spoke with Christ ‘‘conecerning the 
(death or) decease which he should accomplish at Jeru- 
salem.’’ Then those celestial visitors knew what was in 
the mind of Jesus, how the disciples had treated the sub- 
ject when Jesus broached it to them, and what was 
shortly to take place in Jerusalem.” Moses and Elijah 
certainly were acquainted with earth conditions. Jesus 
said there was ‘‘joy in the presence of the angels of 
God over one sinner that repenteth.’’” Then there must 
be knowledge in heaven of such conversions on earth. 


* TV uke \16: 23,24. | ™ Matt. 17: Luke o)" 1 Corsigt Game 
89 Matt. 16: 21-25. 9 Take 1539) an 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 93 


In the Book of Revelation we find the saints in heaven 
rejoicing over the fall of Babylon.” Then they knew 
what was transpiring or was going to transpire on earth, 
did they not? 

There is considerable difference of opinion as to the 
meaning of that wonderful passage in Hebrews: ‘‘ Where- 
fore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a 
cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and 
the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with 
patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus 
the author and finisher of our faith.’?” Exegetically, it 
may be granted that the apparently primary meaning of 
the word ‘‘witnesses’’ refers to that wonderful galaxy 
of men of faith in the preceding chapter—men who by 
their faith have borne witness to God and have had wit- 
ness borne to them by God. Yet, notwithstanding this, 
there are very few commentators who do not make men- 
tion of the reference in these words to the ‘‘race’’ that we 
down here are running in the presence of our loved ones 
who may be watching us from the gates of heaven. Of 
course, of this interpretation we cannot be certain; it is 
beautiful nevertheless. And perhaps we again may call 
this interpretation inferential. Is this inference a fair 
one? Is there anything in Scripture that contradicts it? 

The fishermen on the shore of the Adriatic Sea are 
said to have had a beautiful custom. At eventide, when 
they went out to fish, and after they had been out on the 
water for some time, their wives were in the habit of go- 
ing down to the shore and singing a verse of some hymn 
which, borne over the sea, would be heard by their hus- 
bands out on the deep. When the husbands heard it 
they would sing a verse also and that, too, would be 


* Rev. 19. mi Fteb, T2555. 2. 


94 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


carried by the wind to the shore. And so their wives, 
hearing it, would know their husbands were safe out 
there on the mighty deep. One sometimes wonders 
whether, if our ears were not stopped as they are by 
‘human infirmity and sin, we too might not hear voices 
from the other shore? We recall that when Elisha’s 
servant was discouraged as he saw the mighty men that 
had come to arrest his master, the prophet told him that 
“they that be for us are more than they that be against 
us.’’ But the servant saw only himself and his master. 
Then the prophet prayed to God that He would open 
the servant’s eyes. God did, and behold, the servant saw 
that the mountains round about were filled with horses 
and chariots of fire.” 

What could we see, and hear, think you, if, in some 
such way as God opened this servant’s eyes and Jesus 
opened the eyes and understandings of the Emmaus dis- 
ciples,“ the Heavenly Father would remove the scales 
from our eyes, and give to us hearing more than natural? 
Who ean tell? Let us not limit God. And let us not be 
so narrow in our faith that we shall not be willing to 
take from the Scriptures the comfort that may be found 
even in inferences providing they are fair and just in- 
ferences and do not do violence to the analogy of faith 
and are not contradicted by the Scriptures. O, Jesus, 
teach us, not how little but how much we may believe 
of all the wonderful things Thou hast in store for them 
that love Thee! 


““Tf you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back; 
"Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony 
track. 


% 2 Kings 6:17. “Tuke 24: 13-32. 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 95 


And if, perchance, faith’s light is dim because the oil 
is low; 
Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go. 


**Call back, and tell me that He went with you into the 

storm; 

Call back, and say He kept you when the forest’s roots 
were torn; 

That when the heavens thundered and the earthquake 
shook the hill, 

He bore you up and kept you where the very air was 
stall. 


““O, friend, call back and tell me, for I cannot see your 
face; 
They say it glows with triumph, and your feet bound 
in the race; 
Bui there are mists between us and my spirit eyes are 
dim, 
And I cannot see the glory though I long for word of 
Him. 


““But if you’ll say He heard you when your prayer was 
but a cry, 
And if you'll say He saw you through the night’s 
sin-darkened sky— 
If you’ve gone a little way ahead of me, call back; 
"Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the 
stony track.’’ 


‘How can our loved ones in that other land be 
happy,’’ it is often asked, ‘‘if they know what is going 
on down here on the earth?’’ That mother, for example, 
who sees the sin and waywardness of her child, and 
knows that to continue in that way of life means that 
he will be lost—how can she be happy in heaven and 
know that her boy on earth is suffering, in sorrow, and is 
lost? But, are we sure that she would be happier if 


96 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


she were ignorant as to her boy’s condition? Does igno- 
rance always tend to happiness? Ask a mother now on 
earth whose son or daughter is in trouble, adversity, or 
living a life of sin, and who never writes her a word as 
to where they are or what they are doing. Do you think 
that mother is happy because she is ignorant as to the 
condition of her child? Certainly not. If you could 
talk with her you would hear her say: ‘‘O, if they would 
only write me and let me know where they are and what 
they are doing it would not be so hard to bear.’’ So 
you see ignorance does not, necessarily, tend to happi- 
ness. 

Again we are asked, ‘‘ Would not our loved ones in 
heaven suffer if they knew what was going on on the 
earth?’’? Perhaps they would. Does not God suffer? 
Is there no pain in the heart of the Christ as He looks 
down and sees the waywardness of men, and at the treat- 
ment He receives from their hands? If there is joy in 
the presence of the angels of God over repentant sinners, 
why may there not be ‘‘sorrow’’ over those who repent 
not? Have you a loved one in that other world—a 
mother, perchance? Would you make her happy? 
Then give your heart to Christ, become a Christian, serve 
the Christ she loved and followed and that will give her 
happiness—if the knowledge we have been speaking of 
is possible there. Cease living the life that causes un- 
happiness. This is the practical way of dealing with this 
question. Let us not spend time in distracting argu- 
ment over the question. The way to show the greatest 
concern in the happiness or unhappiness of our departed 
loved ones is to desist from doing that which might give 
pain either to them or Christ and to do those things, and 
live that life, that will bring joy to all concerned. 


THE INTERMEDIATE STATE 97 


I read some time ago of a young man who, after living 
a life of sin, was converted to Christ. After he had 
risen from his knees, having surrendered himself to 
Christ, he stood weeping as though his heart would break. 
The pastor who stood by his side asked him why he was 
not happy seeing he had taken that great step that 
brought him into fellowship with God and Christ? 

**Oh,’’ replied the newly-converted man, ‘‘I am happy 
in that thought, but I was just thinking of the many 
heartbreaks I caused my mother for so many years before 
she died. She prayed for me so earnestly that I might 
become a Christian, but I refused to hear the voice of 
Christ. Oh, if she only knew what I had done to-night, 
she would be so happy. If she only knew, my joy, too, 
would be complete.’’ ‘‘Are you sure she does not 
know ?’’ said the pastor in reply. ‘‘Are we not told by 
Jesus that there is joy in the presence of the angels of 
God over one sinner that repenteth? How do you know 
but that your mother is one of those in the presence of 
God? Perhaps she does know. Personally, I think she 
does, and is participating in your new-found joy to- 
night.”’ 

**Oh,’’ exclaimed the young man, his face aglow with 
hope, ‘‘that thought makes me happy; I believe it now.”’ 

Was the pastor right, think you? Who will say he 
was not? 


When I was but a little child how well I recollect 

How I would grieve my mother with my folly and neg- 
lect ; 

And now that she has gone to heaven I miss her tender 
care: 

O Saviour. tell my mother. I’ll be there! 


98 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


Though I was often wayward, she was always kind and 
good; : 

So patient, gentle, loving, when I acted rough and rude; 

My childhood griefs and trials she would gladly with me 
share: 

O Saviour, tell my mother, I’Ul be there! 


When I became a prodigal, and left the old roof-tree, 

She almost broke her loving heart in mourning after me; 

And day and night she prayed to God to keep me in His 
care: 

O Saviour, tell my mother, I’ll be there! 


One day a message came to me, 1t bade me quickly come 
If I would see my mother ere the Saviour took her home; 
I promised her, before she died, for heaven to prepare: 
O Saviour, tell my mother, I’ll be there! 


VII 
THE RESURRECTION 


C SHE fact of the belief in a future life and exist- 
ence beyond the grave is not peculiar to Chris- 
tianity. It is found in all religions. That 

mankind continues its existence beyond the grave is the 

belief of the entire race. Crude and grotesque many of 
the views of the future existence advocated by different 
peoples may be, nevertheless there is the belief in man’s 
immortality. It is a universal tenet of man’s religion. 

What ts unique in, and peculiar to Christianity is, 
that there shall be a resurrection of the body; that the 
souls of men will not remain in an unembodied or dis- 
embodied state; that men are to be real human beings in 
the world to come. But can there be a real, true human 
being without a body of some kind? We think 
not. A complete human being is a spirit or soul clothed 
in a body. And this is the clear teaching of the Bible 
and the Christian religion. We are not to be beings 
above us, like angels; nor are we to be beings below us, 
like demons; we are to be true human beings, our souls 
clothed with new bodies in that other life. The salva- 
tion which is in Jesus Christ guarantees the resurrection 
of all men * and the blessedness of existence in that new 
body to the believing. 

In speaking of the resurrection body, it may be well 
at this point to differentiate between resurrection and 
reanimation. Perhaps the most helpful illustration of 


*z Cor. 15:22. 
99 


100 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


this distinction and difference is that of the reanimation 
of Lazarus* and the resurrection of Jesus.” The coming 
forth of the body of Lazarus from the tomb was not, 
strictly speaking, a resurrection; it was rather a re- 
animation. Lazarus did not come forth in a new body, 
but in the same body which was placed in the tomb; the 
same body, unchanged, in which he had lived before; the 
body that again became mortal and died even as it had 
before. In the case of Jesus’ coming forth from the tomb 
it was different ; it was a real resurrection, for while the 
body with which Jesus issued forth from the tomb had 
a relation to and an identity with that which had been 
placed in the tomb, it must be said that it was the same 
body, ‘‘but with splendid additions’’; it was no longer 
mortal, nor did it ever see decay; Jesus did not die 
again.” The body of Lazarus was limited in its move- 
ments and nature even as it had been before; but the 
body of Jesus was not, as was evidenced by the fact that 
He could enter a room through barred doors and win- 
dows * and could vanish instantly from the sight of the 
disciples.” It was necessary to move the stone that cov- 
ered the mouth of the tomb of Lazarus in order that he 
might come out. That was not necessary in the case of 
Christ. It is true that the ‘‘stone was rolled away’’ 
from Jesus’ tomb, but that was not to let Christ out but 
to permit others to see within, for there were evidences 
of resurrection within which it was necessary that the 
disciples in particular should see. We know the result 
of the vision of the inside of the tomb, on John, for ex- 
ample: ‘‘He saw and believed.’’* The body of Jesus 
after His resurrection was not the same ‘‘body of hu- 


i John II, * John 20; Matt. 28; Mark 16; Luke 24. 
Rom. 6:9. ®John 20: 19-21. °® Luke 24:31. *John 20: 1-10, 


THE RESURRECTION 101 


miliation’’ as before, and as was the case in the re- 
animation of Lazarus; it was ‘‘a body of glory.’’ So 
we see that there is a difference with a distinction be- 
tween the reanimation of Lazarus and the resurrection 
of Jesus Christ. 

So this human nature of ours is, in Christ, to be 
glorified. We are to have bodies and be truly human 
in that other world. It is interesting to note that the 
apostle, in referring to Christ now in the glory, says: 
‘There is one mediator between God and man, himself 
man, Christ Jesus.’’* This humanity of ours has been 
sanctified by His Incarnation. ‘‘He took not on him the 
nature of angels, but of the seed of Abraham.’’* So 
these ‘‘bodies of our humiliation shall be transformed 
into the likeness of the body of his glory.’’® 

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead guarantees 
that all men, irrespective of condition or position, shall 
rise from the dead: ‘‘For as in Adam all die (physi-: 
cally), so in Christ shall all be made alive’’” (physically, 
of course, for it is the resurrection of the body that 
forms the theme of the fifteenth chapter of First 
Corinthians). There is no doctrine of universal salva- 
tion taught in this passage; indeed, the thought of salva- 
tion of the soul is not at all involved here. Paul is dis- 
cussing the reality and fact of the resurrection of the 
body as a careful reading of the chapter shows. ‘‘ Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming when all that 
are in their graves shall come forth; they that have done 
good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have 
done evil to the resurrection of judgment.’’” ‘‘There 
shall be a resurrection both of the just and the unjust.” 


‘2 mame: :) Acts 7: 56. °Heb. 2: 14-16. “Phil. 3:20, 21. 
ea or, 15 > 22, ® John §: 20, % Acts 24: 15. 


102 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


Put an acorn in the hands of the apostle and at once 
he is feeling the weight of the mighty oak. Show him 
a single sheaf of wheat and he is calling our attention 
to great fields of waving grain. So is it with the resur- 
rection of Jesus: Paul will have every man raised be- 
eause He was raised. The resurrection of the Christ 
is the guarantee of the resurrection of all men. 


No GENERAL RESURRECTION 


The Scriptures do not, however, as we view them, 
teach that there will be a general resurrection of all men 
at one time. Indeed, on the contrary, they teach that 
the righteous and unrighteous are not raised simul- 
taneously. The resurrection of the just is prior to and 
separate from that of the wicked—the rest of the dead. 
The resurrection of believers is called the resurrection 
out from among the dead. 

The eminent Hebrew scholar, Tragelles, who was said 
to have been pensioned by the British Government for 
his scholarship, translates Daniel 12:2 in a most inter- 
esting way, and in a manner which corroborates the 
point we are here discussing. Here is the reading: 
‘*And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth 
shall awake; some (who awake at this time) to ever- 
lasting life, and some (literally, those who do not awake 
at this time) to shame and everlasting contempt.’’ 
Other well-known Hebrew scholars translate the same 
passage as follows: ‘‘And [at that time] many [of the 
people] shall awake [or be separated] out from among 
the sleepers in the earth dust. These [who awake] shall 
be unto life eternal, but those [who do not awake at 
that time] shall be unto shame and contempt everlast- 
ing.’’ It seems clear, then, from this passage that all 


—_—— 


THE RESURRECTION 103 


do not awake at one [this] time, but only as many ‘‘as 
are found written in the book.’’ ” 

Paul, we believe, teaches the same truth: *‘For as in 
Adam all die, even so also in Christ shall all be made 
alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first- 
fruits; then they that are Christ’s, at his coming; then 
cometh the end.’’” The apostle, it seems to us, clearly 
indicates an interval of time by the use of the ‘‘then’’ 

/and ‘‘afterwards,’’? words which in Greek clearly indi- 
eate an interval of time taking place between (for il- 
lustration of which compare ‘‘For the earth bringeth 
forth fruit of herself; first, the blade, then the ear, then 
the full corn in the ear’’”). Surely, in these words of 
Christ an interval of time is intended between each 
*‘then.’? So with our Corinthian passage: There is 
**Christ, the first-fruits’’; after that—two thousand 
years almost have elapsed since Christ rose from the 
dead—the resurrection of ‘‘them that are Christ’s,’’ that 
is to say, believers; then, after that—who can say how 
long after?—comes the resurrection of the ‘‘rest of the 
dead.’’ 

Was it not for this out-from-among-the-dead resurrec- 
ion that the apostle Paul was so earnestly striving to be 
accounted a worthy participant when he wrote—If by 
any means I might attain unto the resurrection of (more 
literally, out from among) the dead?” Paul did not 
have to strive to live a worthy, sacrificial, devoted life 
in order that he might be raised from the dead, for, as 
we have already seen, every person will be raised from 
the dead irrespective as to moral character. Paul him- 
self so taught; so did Jesus. What Paul was striving to 


Darn, 12: 1: *T Corts 32225 
Mark 4: 28. Se Phil) 3 3X1: 


104 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


be counted worthy of was the first resurrection,” the 
resurrection of the just,° of the righteous from anong 
the wicked, the better resurrection,” the resurréction 
unto life,” of the dead in Christ * of them that are 
Christ’s,” that resurrection that shall admit into the 
millennial state.” May we not look on that event re- 
corded in Matthew as an illustration of the out-from- 
among-the-dead resurrection unto life and glory ?—‘‘ And 
the tombs were opened; and many of the bodies of the 
saints that had fallen asleep were raised; and coming 
forth out of their tombs after his resurrection they en- 
tered into the holy city and appeared unto many.’’ * 
‘‘And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, 
and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls 
of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus 
and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped 
the beast, neither his image, neither had received his 
mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they 
lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But 
the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand 
years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resur- 
rection; on such the second death hath no power, but 
they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall 
reign with him a thousand years.’’” Here surely is a 
clear mark of time between the resurrection of the 
righteous and that of the wicked; the one coming before, 
and the other after the millennium, a thousand years 
separating them. Nor are we to spiritualize this resur- 
rection. The first resurrection is just as literal and no 
more spiritual than that described in verse twelve of 


® Rev. 20:5, 6. ® Luke 14: 14. TLE, PE ae, 
1 John 5:20. Ts GCorsre ss a Matt, 27) Soin 


THE RESURRECTION 105 


this same chapter, where the writer says: ‘‘ And I saw 
the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the 
books were opened; and another book was opened, which 
is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of the 
things written in the books. And the sea gave up the 
dead which were in it; and death and hades gave up the 
dead which were in them.’’ The resurrection of the 
saints—the first resurrection—is not to be understood 
as ‘‘a revival of the cause, principles, doctrines, charac- 
ter and spirit of the early martyrs and saints,’’ nor the 
spiritual quickening of dead souls into life. These were 
not spiritually dead; on the contrary they are declared 
*‘blessed, holy, just and good.’’ Hence it is not a 
spiritual but a literal resurrection to which reference is 
here made. 

‘For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with 
the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise 
first.’ The word ‘‘shout’’ is an interesting one. It 
is the word of command given by a general to his own 
army, a signal or sound not known to the opposing 
forces. It comes from the word ‘‘keleuo,’’? meaning ‘‘to 
give orders.’’ In this passage we have the only place 
in the New Testament in which this word ‘‘shout’’ 
(keleusma) is found. Other words translated ‘‘shout’’ 
are found, such as ‘‘epiphonein,’’ which refer to a loud 
shout made for or against a person. We may say that 
the ‘‘shout’’ to which Paul here refers will awaken only 
the dead in Christ, even as the voice of Jesus, calling 
Lazarus by name, brought but Lazarus from the dead. 
So shall it be in that day when the trump (salpizo) of 
God will sound aloud to attract the attention of the dead 

41 Thess. 4: 16. 


106 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


in Christ, the saints which sleep in the dust. It is inter- 
esting to note that no trumpet sounds at the end of the 
. thousand years. The football signals which the spec- 
tators hear ealled out from the field may not mean much 
to them, but oh, how much they mean to the players who 
understand their full meaning and so quickly and ea- 
gerly respond to them! 

This call will take place when the last trumpet ™ shall 
sound. The word ‘‘last’’? as here used does not neces- 
sarily, if at all, denote the last in point of time. The 
word is taken from the Roman military code of signals 
and indicates the trumpet call for marching. We may 
say that the first trumpet sound meant to fall in; the 
second, for attention, while the third or last indicated the 
command to march. Further, we may note in this con- 
nection that Christ who is the ‘‘second’’ man is also 
called the ‘‘last’’ Adam; the ‘‘second’’ thus being equiv- 
alent to ‘‘the last.’’” This, too, is in harmony with 
Paul’s idea of the order of the resurrection: ‘‘ But every 
man in his own order’’—the word ‘‘order’’? meaning 
company, regiment, battalion.” 

Just as Lazarus heard the voice of the Master calling 
him by name and came forth from the tomb, so shall it 
be in that day when ‘‘the Lord shall descend from heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the 
trump of God, and the dead in Christ rise first.’’ 
‘Marvel not at this.”” What wonderful power there was 
in the voice of Christ! One sometimes thinks that had 
Jesus not called Lazarus by name, and said ‘‘ Lazarus, 
come forth!’’ that that Voice would have penetrated the 
whole region of the dead and all the dead would have 
come forth and every grave have been left empty. Some 


Ar Cor. 1s2)52! 1) Cor#15 + AB-A7, *y Cor. 15 a4 


THE RESURRECTION 107 


day that will be the case, even though not simultane- 
ously, for ‘‘the hour is coming when all that are in their 
graves shall hear his voice and come forth.’’* 

Objections have been raised against this out-from- 
among-the-dead theory, and a claim made for a general 
resurrection of all men at one and the same time. It 
is objected that by the first resurrection is meant the 
revival of the spirit of the early martyrs. Still it is 
quite difficult to think of beheading ideas, and some- 
what confusing to picture spirits sitting on thrones. 
Under ordinary circumstances we would say that resur- 
rection has to do with bodies rather than spirits, 

As supporting the doctrine of a general resurrection, 
our attention is drawn to the words of Paul before the 
Jewish council: ‘‘ But this I confess unto thee, that after 
the way which they eall a sect, so serve I the God of our 
fathers, believing all things which are according to the 
law and which are written in the prophets; having hope 
towards God, which these also themselves look for, that 
there shall be a resurrection both of the just and un- 
gust.’?® These words, it is urged, teach a simultaneous 
resurrection of both the righteous and wicked. But do 
they? Let us examine the context in which we find these 
words; let us look at them in their setting. It was the 
belief and teaching of the Pharisees that the resurrection 
would be confined to the bodies of the just only, many 
denying the resurrection of the wicked at all. Paul is 
correcting this misconception as well as aiming a blow 
at the Sadducees who disbelieved in a future resurrection 
at all. So instead of teaching a simultaneous resurrec- 
tion of the just and the unjust he is assuring them 
that there will certainly be a resurrection of both, a fact 


*% John 5:20 Acts 24: 15. 


108 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


which, as we have seen, some denied. Not one person, 
says the apostle, shall escape the resurrection; no one 
shall remain in the grave; all shall come forth. This is 
Paul’s argument: he is claiming the universality not the 
contemporaneousness of the resurrection of all mankind. 

Still another verse is set forth as teaching a general 
resurrection of all men at the same time. The words of 
Jesus are quoted: ‘‘Marvel not at this: for the hour 
cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his 
voice and shall come forth; they that have done good to 
the resurrection of life; they that have done evil to the 
resurrection of judgment.’’“ We are told that the ex- 
pression ‘‘the hour’’ settles the fact that all shall come 
forth from their graves at the same time. But, we ask, 
how long is that hour? How does Jesus Himself use the 
word hour in close connection? In verse twenty-five: 
‘*The hour cometh and now is,’’ ete.; also in the pre- 
ceding chapter: ‘‘The hour cometh when ye shall worship 
the Father,’’ ete. That ‘‘hour’’ has lasted almost two 
thousand years now. That hour was then, is now, yea 
and ever shall be, for always shall men worship the Fa- 
ther in spirit and in truth. Thus we see that in both 
instances the hour referred to is twice as long as the 
millennium period. How long the last hour or last 
day “ will be—who ean tell? They will be long enough 
for all these future events to transpire in, that is if that 
is the place for them to be effected. 

‘“The dead in Christ shall rise first.??” The dead in 
Christ, they are everywhere,—‘under monumental 
piles, storied urns and marble busts; sleeping in un- 
marked graves; in the lonely churchyard, and beneath 
the moaning waves of the restless sea; those who have 


© John 5:20. * John 6: 54. 1 Thess. 4: 14-16. 


ea. ee ee 


THE RESURRECTION 109 


died by rack, by stake and torture ; those who have fallen - 
in the fields of battle; those who have passed through — 
the gates of disease and pain, and others who have gone 
as when the sun sets and its colours fade softly and 
quietly from the evening sky.’’ ‘‘The dead in Christ 
shall rise first. Blessed are the dead which die in the 
Lord!’’* What a wonderful truth: The dead in Christ 
shall arise, shall be clothed with incorruption, shall put 
on immortality! The body of the child of God shall 
awake. What a miracle in this day when miracle is 
denied! This body in which we have sinned, suffered, 
ached, pained, groaned, died, and that has been put into 
the grave—this body shall rise again. Darkness may 
overshadow it; the chill and damp of the tomb may 
mould it; worms may eat it; the elements may dissolve — 
it, yea annihilate it, but glory be to God, it shall rise 
triumphant over death and the grave! MHast thou this 
flower of faith in the garden of thy heart? Canst thou, 
my soul, lift up thy voice and sing, ‘‘I know that my 
Redeemer liveth, and because He lives, I, too, shall live, 
J, too, shall live? Come, my soul, why art thou cast 
down and disquieted within thee? Knowest thou not, O 
child of mortality, worm of the dust, that thou art heir 
to immortality ?”’ 


THE GLORIFIED BopIEs OF THE RIGHTEOUS 
The question may be asked, ‘‘ With what body do the 
righteous come forth from the grave?’’ The same ques- 
tion is asked in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians 
by the sneering and sceptical in the Early Church: 
‘And with what body do they come forth?’’™ One can 
almost hear and feel the sneer as he reads the words. 


8 Rev. 14: 13. My Cor. 25 tas a0y ace 


110 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


But after all that is a question immaterial, for ‘‘God 
will give it a body as it hath pleased him.’’™ 

There are those who say that a resurrection is im- 
possible. ‘‘Do not the atoms of which the body is com- 
posed, intermingle, at death, with other bodies and be- 
come a part of such bodies?’’ they ask. ‘‘How then, at 
the resurrection day, can these atoms which once com- 
posed these bodies of ours but since death have become 
parts of other bodies, be brought back to our bodies, for 
they cannot be in two places at one time?’’ 

But is it not true that it is not the identity of the 
molecules composing our bodies but their number and 
relation that constitute identity. Our bodies are con- 
stantiy changing. We are told that they change com- 
pletely every seven years. Yet our identity remains. 
The drops of water that form the whirlpool are con- 
stantly changing but the whirlpool is the same. The 
beams of the sun are constantly changing but the sun 
is the same. The infinite resources of God and Nature 
are not to be baffled by the grave. Because the Scrip- 
tures teach a literal resurrection of the body, it is not 
necessary, we think, to insist on the resurrection of the 
very identical body—tooth, hair, nail, that was put into 
the ground. For example, it is not necessary to insist 
that at the resurrection those limbs, which the wounded 
American soldier was compelled to leave behind on the 
battlefields of France, will come floating over continents 
to join the body here. The analogy of Nature ought to 
teach us this: ‘‘But thou wilt say, How are the dead 
raised up? and with what body do they come forth. 
. . . That which thou sowest, thou sowest not that 
body which shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of 
wheat, or of some other grain. But God giveth it a 





’ 
. 
: 
h 
: 


THE RESURRECTION 111 


body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own 
body.’’?*® You place a canna bulb under the ground. 
It is a dry, parched, homely looking thing; very different 
to that which springs up from it. As the result of the 
planting you have a most gorgeous ecanna-lily flower. It 
is quite different in appearance from that which you 
placed under the ground. That is true; but it is a 
eanna lily and not a rose that comes up. The identity 
is preserved. And that is all we need to insist upon 
with regard to the resurrection—that our identity will 
be preserved. After all it is not so much a question of 
material identity as of glorified individuality. The 
growth of the seed shows that there may be personal 
identity under a complete change of physical conditions. 

The saying of Jesus, ‘‘being children of the resurrec- 
tion’’* is quite interesting in this connection. In this 
world it takes a long time to prepare and develop the 
human body to full maturity. From the moment of its 
conception it passes through many stages, changes, phases 
of growth and transitions ere it reaches fulness of stat- 
ure. Some say it takes twenty-eight years to accom- 
plish this. But in the resurrection it shall not be so. 
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the soul will 
spring to the new body which God has prepared for it. 
All this will be ‘‘according to the working of the might 
of his strength.’?” Perhaps we may say four things at 
least about this new body of the believer: It need not 
be absolutely identical, so far as matter is concerned, 
with that which we placed in the grave. It will, how- 
ever, have some organic connection with that body which 
descended into the grave. It will be a body which God 
according to His sovereign power will bestow. It will 


™1 Cor. 15: 37, 38. *® Luke 20: 36. * Phil. 3: 21. 


112 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? | 


be a body which will be a vast improvement on the old 
one. Of all this we may be certain. So let us take 
courage and thank God for the blessed hope of im- 
mortality of the body. Let us say that it will be like 
this body of our humiliation but with magnificent, glori- 
ous additions. 


RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN 


Shall we know and recognize each other in heaven? 
Shall the mother know her child as her child? Shall we 
know each other in the same relationships we sustained 
while on earth? How many times is this question asked, 
and with what interest and ofttimes anxiety? And how 
little we know at times how much the happiness of the 
inquirer depends upon the answer given to the question. 
To some it would seem as if heaven would not be heaven 
if we were to be unable to recognize those whom we 
‘“have loved long since, and lost a while.’’ 


“‘How dark, how drear, would be the fondest world of 
bliss, 
If, wandering through each radiant zone, 
We failed to find the loved of this! ’’ 


It does seem as though our deepest instincts eall for 
such recognition, and surely these instincts are God- 
given. Are they not an ‘‘earnest’’* of that which shall 
be to those who love God? Hath not God made us thus? 
Are we not, even in this world, social creatures? Shall 
we be less so in that other and larger world? 'To mingle 
with people and to be unable to know and recognize 
them and distinguish them one from another—is that 


Sa Corser s, 


. THE RESURRECTION 113 


reasonable to suppose? Shall we be solitary, isolated 
spirits there? There is love in that far-away land; of 
that we are sure; and there must be some one to love; 
but will we be able to know and differentiate between 
those we meet there and love? Why this lonesome feel- 
ing in our hearts for our departed loved ones? It seems 
to increase with the passing of the years in spite of our 
friends’ assurance that Time is a great healer. Does 
God intend to satisfy this longing, this yearning from 
which we never seem quite to get away? You may take 
the calf from the cow, and the kittens from the mother 
and in a very few days they will be forgotten by the 
mother. But how different with the human mother! 
Many years after, when her head is gray and bowed with 
the passing of the years, and when all else seems to have 
been forgotten, or if remembered makes little impres- 
sion, how quickly you can bring the tears to her eyes 
and the pain to her heart when you speak of that little 
child that died in her arms forty years ago. 

Shall we know less in heaven than we do here? We 
know our loved ones here, do we not? Why then should 
we not know them there? ‘‘Now I know in part, then 
shall I know even as also I am fully known.’”’ ‘‘ Now 
we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face.’’™ 
A ragged little street urchin stood outside a toy-store 
looking at the wonderful toys. It was the day before 
Christmas. With what wondering eyes and longing 
heart he viewed those beautiful things for which he 
hankered but which his poverty prevented his enjoying! 
He turned away with keen disappointment and with an 
ache in his heart, but not before he had put out his hand 
in an attempt to touch the toys. Alas, there was the 


rt Gor 53h a2. 


114 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


glass window between him and them. He turned away 
to go to his wretched lodgings again. While crossing 
the street he was run over by an automobile. He was 
hurt, but not fatally. They picked him up and took him 
to the hospital. The next day was Christmas. Kind 
friends had provided toys for the children in the hos- 


pital to brighten their Christmastime. So two boxes of — 


toys were brought to the wounded boy. One of them 
was a box of lead soldiers such as he had seen in the 
window the day before and which he longed to possess; 
indeed it was to handle these that he put out his hand 
and found the window between him and the toys. Now, 
as he lay there on the hospital bed, he gazed with won- 
dering expression on the box of toy soldiers. He could 
scarce believe what he saw. He put out his hand to 
touch them, and then, such an expression of joyful sur- 
prise came over his face as he exclaimed, ‘‘Oh, there is 
no glass between them, is there?’’ So shall it be in that 
great day when we shall stand before the King. Now 
we see through a glass darkly, but not then; we shall see 
face to face in that day. And surely what we know 
here and recognize as through a mirror, dimly, we shall 
fully recognize when we stand in all the fulness of the 
divine glory. 

We have already seen that those who have died in 
Christ are alive, active, conscious in that other life. 
Even Dives, in hades, is able to think and to recognize 
Lazarus. The world over one finds such a belief. No 
matter how steeped in ignorance any pagan tribe may 
be, there is that lingering hope that there will be 
recognition in that other world. How did this universal 
longing come into the human heart? Surely it is not by 
training, education or tradition, for many of these tribes 





THE RESURRECTION 115 


have not had such privileges. God must have put it 
there. We make much of what is called ‘‘ The Universal 
Argument’’ for the existence of God; why not make as 
much of it for recognition in the next world? Let us 
believe that we can. We may say that these are but 
natural inferences and not Scriptural arguments. 

One may ask: ‘‘ Does the Scripture distinetly and un- 
equivocally teach recognition in the future life?’’ That 
may be a very difficult question to answer by ‘‘yes’’ or 
‘‘no.’’ All questions cannot be thus answered. Some 
maintain they can. I recall hearing of a witness who 
seemed to delight in refusing to answer the lawyer’s 
questions by ‘‘yes’’ or ‘‘no.’’ Finally, in exasperation, 
the lawyer said to him, ‘‘I want you to answer all the 
questions I ask you by ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ ”’ 

“‘T am sorry,’’ was the reply, ‘‘but it cannot be done. 
There are questions which cannot be answered by ‘yes’ 
eat, 7°? 

‘You are mistaken,’’ said the lawyer, ‘‘there are no 
such questions, and I challenge you to ask me one that 
cannot be answered by ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ ”’ 

‘‘Very well,’’ said the witness, ‘‘I’ll ask you one: 
‘When did you stop beating your wife?’ ”’ 

The lawyer stammered and beat about for an answer, 
but of course failed. So there are questions that cannot 
be so lightly answered as by ‘‘yes’’ or ‘‘no.’’ And the 
question of recognition in heaven is one of them. But 
even if it be impossible to cite Scripture that clearly and 
without dispute gives hope for such a gracious experi- 
ence in that other life, that would not mean that there 
were not Scriptural inferences so just and fair as to lead 
us to believe almost if not as strongly as though there 
were a positive word. If the Seriptures do not contra- 


116 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


dict fair inferences why not hope in such fair inferential 
teachings. 

We are living in a scientific age. We demand proof 
for everything. That is our poverty. We are inclined 
to look with disdain on those who believe so easily. We 
smile rather patronizingly at those who give easy cre- 
dence to the things of religion; they are so unsuspecting, 
unsuspicious, credulous, yea, we go so far as to call 
them gullible. We are prone to pride ourselves as those 
who are to be convinced only on the presentation of evi- 
dence, of scientific fact. We demur, hesitate, distrust; 
we are sceptical, incredulous, unbelieving of anything 
that does not have the mark of scientific proof. Doubt- 
ing Thomas is the idol of such. Like him they say: 
‘“Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put 
my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand 
into his side, I will not believe.’’ Well, he had the 
opportunity, for Jesus stood before him and challenged 
such ‘‘proof’’ and ‘‘investigation.’? Whether Thomas 
accepted the challenge or not we do not know. But 
Jesus gave him the opportunity. 

Jesus does not despise faith in whatever way it comes. 
But He does pity the poor fellow who will not believe 
unless he sees and feels, unless he has scientific proof 
and fact before him. To discover a fact is something, 
but it is a paltry thing as compared with the perception 
of a truth. To perceive by faith a great spiritual truth 
is far greater than to be convinced by a scientific fact. 
Is not this what Jesus meant when He said to Thomas: 
**Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed 
are they that have not seen and yet have believed.’ ® 
Did He not mean the same thing when He said to Peter: 


© John 20: 20. 








THE RESURRECTION 117 


‘‘Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood 
hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is 
in heaven’’?* Herein lies the poverty of this scientific 
age :—that it is destitute of that exceedingly greater at- 
tainment—faith, shall we not rather say that gift, rather 
than attainment, of God; that power to perceive truth 
rather than to discover fact; that power to believe in 
spite and scorn of evidence; shall we eall it the will, 
power, faith to believe? This is not to discourage nor 
belittle the presentation of facts and proof, but only to 
magnify that which is infinitely higher—the perception 
by faith, as a revelation of the Holy Spirit to man, of 
spiritual truth.” So a devout and humble child of God 
can see more on his knees than a philosopher can on a 
mountain top. And it is for the same reason that many 
a simple child of God has gone clean into the kingdom 
of truth while the scholar, depending on mere proofs, 
has been compelled to stand outside fumbling with the 
latch. ‘‘I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and 
earth; because thou hast hid these things from the wise 
and prudent and revealed them unto babes; even so, 
Father, for it seemeth good in thy sight.’’* 

There is a strange and significant expression running 
throughout the Old Testament. It is this: ‘‘Gathered 
unto his people.’’ For example: God said unto Moses, 
**Come up into the mount and die, and be gathered unto 
thy people.’’“ Just what did God mean by this ex-— 
pression, ‘‘be gathered unto thy people’’? He surely 
could not have referred to mere burial, for Moses was 
not gathered unto his people in that respect. Moses died 
alone on the mount, the place of his burial no one yet 


“ Matt. 16: 17, “Chit Cor. 22 faite: 
4 Matt. z1: 25. “Deut. 32: 50. 


118 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


knows. Aaron, his brother, was buried on the side of 
Mount Hermon; Miriam, his sister, was buried in the 
desert, while his mother doubtless lay resting in some 
burial plot in Egypt. There must, therefore, have been 
a reference to something deeper than mere burial. What 
was that deeper meaning? Was it that he should meet 
those whom he had loved long since and lost a while in 
that ‘‘land that is fairer than day’’? 

David felt the loss by death of his young child very 
keenly. During the illness of the child for days and 
nights he ate nothing, nor did he change his dress; he 
fasted and wept, hoping that perchance God might spare 
the life of the child. When, however, that did not seem 
to be the divine will, and the child died, David cheered 
his heart and acquiesced in the will of God gladly. In 
response to the faith which was in his soul, David ex- 
claimed: ‘‘He cannot come to me, but I shall go to 
him.’’“ May we not see in this confession of David a 
belief in the fact that he would be able to see and recog- 
nize his child in that golden future day? We think so. 

It seems clear from the story of The Rich Man and 
Lazarus,” that Dives, Abraham and Lazarus knew each 
other. It is equally clear from the Transfiguration story 
that the disciples knew Moses and Elijah whom they had 
indeed never seen.” Shall we not know those whom we 
have seen, have well known and lived with, lo, these 
many years? Is not this a fair inference? Again we 
think so. 

Our Lord, when warning the disciples against covet- 
ousness, bids them use ‘‘the mammon of unrighteous- 
ness’’ [time, talent, money, gifts] to make friends with, 
so that when death overtakes us we shall have such 


“2 Sam. 12: 22, 23. *Tuke 16:19-31. “ Matt. 17: 1-12, 


EE a 


THE RESURRECTION 119 


friends—that is to say those whom we by the proper use 
of our time, talents, gifts, money, have won for Christ 
and helped and blessed—to welcome us into the ever- 
lasting habitations.” Does not this indicate that we shall 
be able to recognize those whom we have helped, blessed 
and led to Christ? Surely, in some degree at least, it 
does. 

To the dying thief on the Cross, who, in a magnificent 
flight of faith, had seen in the dying Christ the coming 
King, Jesus said: ‘‘To-day shalt thou be with me in 
paradise.’’“” This expression, it seems to us, implies that 
there would be mutual recognition. 

The Church at Thessalonica was deeply spiritual. It 
most fervently and ardently believed in the second com- 
ing of the Lord. So firm was their faith in this doctrine 
that when their loved ones died they felt that, being 
dead, they would not have a share in the glories attend- 
ing the second advent. In this they were mistaken; so 
Paul writes the first epistle to comfort them in this re- 
gard. He tells them that when Jesus comes for His 
saints, the first thing He will do will be to raise the 
righteous dead, their dead in Christ; then, after that, 
He will change the righteous living, and together, they 
shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, there to 
be with Him forever. This was to be their comfort. 
But would this be any comfort, think you, if they were 
not to know their loved ones from strangers? Unless 
they were assured they would know and greet their loved 
ones how could these words indeed comfort them?” To 
these same Thessalonian Christians Paul expresses his 
desire to visit them as he has often purposed to do, but 
has been hindered for one reason or another. He tells 


* Luke 16:9. © Tuke 23: 43. 1 Thess. 4: 13-20. 


120 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


them, however, that even though he should not again see 
their faces in the flesh, he would see them in the glory: 
‘‘Wor what is my joy and my crown of rejoicing? Are 
not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his 
coming ?’’™ 

The disciples knew Jesus after His resurrection. 
There are some interesting things we may learn about 
this subject in the consideration of the post-resurrection 
appearances of Jesus. He Himself drew attention to 
the nail prints in His hands and feet and the mark of 
the spear-thrust in His side as marks of identity by 
which they might know that He was the same Jesus 
whom they had known in life: ‘‘ Handle me and see that 
it is I myself.’?” The Christ they knew in life had not 
lost all connection with the Christ they now looked upon. 
The Jesus of the flesh and the risen Christ were indis- 
solubly united. ‘‘Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to- 
day and forever.’’” Jesus, you see, would have the dis- 
ciples understand that He was not altogether dissoci- 
ated from the former life and conditions. The wounds 
in His hands, feet and side would remind them of this. 
Here were objective marks of identity with the past, not 
mere subjective thoughts and wishes. 

It is true that the body of His resurrection was un- 
fettered by time or space as the body of His flesh had 
been. He could pass through closely barred doors and 
windows and could quickly and easily vanish from their 
presence.” He could reveal or conceal His identity at 
will.” He could emerge from the tomb while the stone 
was yet in front of its mouth. All this is true; but the 
resurrection body had an identity with the former one 


1 Thess. 2: 17-10. ? Luke 24: 30. ® Heb. 13:8. 
John 20:19, 20, 27; Luke 24: 31. ®Tuke 24: 16. 


- 4 a coat oe _ : 
ee ee ee 


Sail 


THE RESURRECTION 121 


—only it had magnificent additions. It was the body of 
His glory. That the resurrection body of Jesus had 
some vital connection and identity with the body He had 
while in the flesh is evident, further, by some coinci- 
dences, undesigned, it is true, but all the more valuable 
because of that fact. For example: As Jesus walked 
with the two disciples on the Emmaus road, they did not 
know Him—‘‘ for their eyes were holden that they might 
not know him.’’ “ When, however, at their most earnest 
solicitation, Jesus went into the house with them to dine 
and remain for the night, He became known to them. 
But how? The text says: ‘‘He was made known to them 
in the breaking of the bread.’’™ 

But just how? Perhaps they saw His hands, which 
up to this time had been hidden from them, and they 
saw the prints of the nails in them, and thus recognized 
that it was Jesus. That is quite possible and perhaps 
reasonable to suppose. But to me there seems another 
mode of recognition, and one which I love to dwell upon 
m this connection. They sat down at the table to eat. 
Jesus was the honoured guest, and, naturally, they look 
to Him for the prayer for the blessing on their meal. 
He was asked to ‘‘give thanks.’’ He did so, and in the 
giving of thanks for the bread He became known to 
them. Was there any one else who could ever ask the 
blessing as Jesus did? Had they not seen and heard 
it again and again during the three years or more they 
were with Him? And now, here He is again asking the 
blessing, in the same way, with the same expression and 
words. At once they recall the Master; they recognize 
in the stranger who had walked with them, none other 
than Jesus. And so it was that Jesus carried with Him 


%Tuke 24: 16. 7 Tuke 24: 35. 


122 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


the same manners and characteristics in connection with 
“‘saying grace’’ that He had with Him while in the flesh, 
So all relations between the previous life and the one 
He was now living were not dissolved. 

Another unstudied, incidental matter, but fraught with 
comforting truth. As Mary Magdalene stood without 
the tomb weeping as though her heart would break, there 
approached her a man, whom she supposed to be the 
gardener. He said to her: ‘‘Woman, why weepest 
thou??? ‘‘They have taken away my Lord,”’ she replied, 
‘and I know not where they have laid him.’’ The man 
standing by her side then uttered the one word, ‘‘Mary.’’ 
At once, she recognized that Voice, even though she had 
not looked up. No one could call her name as Jesus did, 
and so, without having looked into the face of Jesus, she 
eried out, ‘‘Rabboni!’’* So Jesus had the same voice 
after as before His resurrection, had He? It would 
seem so. Would you not know that voice that used to 
eall you by your first name even though it has been 
silent for years? Of course you would know it. You 
would know it even amid the loudest burst of heaven’s 
great chorus. 

And, saying a brief word further as to the connection 
between the body of the former days and the days of 
His resurrection, it may not be amiss to draw attention 
to the fact that the post-resurrection appearances of 
Jesus were allied and linked with and very much like 
those of former days. It seems as though there had 
been no break by reason of death in the plans. ‘‘ Go 
into Galilee; he will meet you there, even as he said.’’” 
He was known to the disciples on the lake of Galilee by 
a miraculous draught of fishes such as He had given 


°° John 20: 16. ° Matt. 28:7. 


THE RESURRECTION 123 


them during the days of His flesh.” We have already 
referred to the breaking of the bread and the sound of 
His voice. 

So you see no man really begins life all over again in 
that other world. It is not altogether new; it is not al- 
together dissociated from the past. The song they sing 
there is the song of redemption—it has in it a memory 
of and a relation to the past; the worshippers know that 
it is to the Lamb they owe their redemption, and that it 
was He Who had washed them from their sins.” 

Little can be said as to the ‘‘how’’ and ‘‘means’’ of 
recognition. The modus operandi we may not know 
here. It is, or at least should be, enough that we shall 
know each other in that ‘‘land of far distances. ’’ 


““Soul of my soul, I shall meet thee again— 
With God be the rest.”’ 


Perhaps we shall not need the trappings of introduc- 
tion we are accustomed to here. The disciples on the 
mount knew Moses and Elijah whom they had never 
seen. Just how, we do not know; but the fact remains 
that they knew them. 


**Tt was not mother that I knew thy face; 
It was my heart that cried out, Mother!’ 


I have wondered sometimes if our Lord’s victory over 
Satan, death and the grave does not demand the recogni- 
tion of our loved ones who have died in Christ? We are 
told that Christ has abolished death, and robbed the 
grave of its victory.” What does death do to us? Does 
it not tear our loved ones from our tender embrace? 


© John 21: I-I0. S Reve Te se 0), @y Cor. 15:55, 50. 


124 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


Shall not the triumph of Christ reverse all this and give 
them back to us? Can the victory be a complete one 
if it stops short of this accomplishment? We simply ask 
the question. Can I still ery out ‘‘O death, where is 
thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory!’’ if death and 
the grave still rob me of my loved ones and that forever? 

But you may ask: ‘‘ How will my little child know me, 
and how shall I know my child? She was a mere child 
when she died. Has she not grown during all these 
years since she left us and went to that other land? 
How then shall we know each other?’’ I wonder, some- 
times, if we do not make a mistake in this connection by 
thinking that the recognition is to come all from our side. 
May it not be, think you, that they may have been 
watching us, yea and waiting for us, all these years? 
And if it be true that they know what is transpiring 
down here, may they not have marked the change and 
growth that has come over us during the passing of the 
years, so that we will not be strange to them as we stand 
at the golden gate awaiting entrance into the Holy City? 
May they not have been watching us as we have been 
changing from youth to age and our hair has turned 
from brown to gray? Who will say that this may not be 
so? I love to think or hope it may be so. I remember 
reading a little while ago of a reunion between a mother 
and son. They had not seen each other for thirty years. 
He was stolen from her when he was a mere child, and 
now he stands before her a grown man with beard! Yet 
in a few moments she knew him. 


‘Always a boy to her, no matter how old he’s grown, 
She’s blind to his strands of gray, she’s deaf to his 
manly tone.’? 


THE RESURRECTION 125 


How will our loved ones look when next we see them? 
Oh, how many hearts are asking that question, and how 
much it would mean to be able to answer it without the 
slightest shadow of a doubt! 


“‘Not changed, but glorified! O beauteous thought 

Por those who weep, 

Mourning the loss of some dear face, departed, 
Fallen asleep! 

How will tt look? The face that we have cherished, 

Hushed into silence, never more to comfort 
The hearts of men; 

Gone like the shadows of another Sntipha 
Beyond our ken. 


‘How will it look, the face that we have cherished, 

When next we meet? 

Will it be changed—so glorified and saintly 
That we shall know it not? 

Will there be nothing that will say, ‘I love thee, 
And I have not forgot’? 

O faithful heart! the same loved face, transfigured, 
Shall meet thee there, 

Less sad, less wistful, in immortal beauty, 
Divinely fair. 


**Let us be patient, we who mourn with weeping 
Some vanished face; 
The Lord has taken, but to add more beauty 
And a dwiner grace.’’ 


What a glorious thought for the believers who die in 
Christ and for those who have hope in Him! It is 
for this reason that the apostle exhorts us to ‘‘sor- 
row not as others which have no such hope.’’* The 
word ‘‘sorrow’’ here is used to indicate inward grief as 
contrasted with outward manifestations of sorrow. With 


1 Thess. 4: 13. 


126 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


such a hope for our beloved dead why should we grieve 
as others? Should the Christian put on mourning? 
Why should we thus proclaim to the world the very 
opposite of what our faith teaches us? Why not rather 
put on gladness that our beloved dead have entered into 
that new and eternal state of bliss? 


“‘When we cross the valley there need be no shadows, 
When life’s day is ended and its sorrows o’er; 
When the summons eomes to meet our blessed Saviour; 
When we rise to dwell with Him for evermore. 


““Shadows; no need of shadows, 
When at last we lay life’s burdens down. 

Shadows; no need of shadows, 
When at last we gain the victor’s crown. 


““When our loved ones leave us there need be no shadows, 
If their faith is fixed on Jesus as their Lord; 
For they go to be with Him who died to save them, 
To be with the One whom they have long adored. 


“*When He comes to meet us there need be no shadows ; 
When He comes in all His glorious array; 
When the trump shall sound and loved ones waken, 
When He leads us onward with triumphant sway.”’ 


ets oe 


VIII 
THE JUDGMENTS 


IKE Death, the subject of Judgment is one of 
mingled fear and hope, sadness and gladness ac- 


cording to how it is viewed and one’s readiness 
for it. ‘‘And as Paul reasoned of righteousness, tem- | 
perance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and an- 
swered, Go thy way for this time, when I have a more 
convenient reason I will call for thee.’’* Nor is Felix 
the only one that has trembled at the thought of a com- 
ing day of judgment. Paul, the aged apostle, rejoiced 
in prospect of a judgment day when the awards of life 
would be distributed by the righteous Judge: ‘‘For I am 
now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure 
is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I have finished 
my course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is 
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord 
the righteous judge shall give me at that day and not 
to me only, but unto all them also that love his appear- 

ing. 292 
It is perhaps difficult for any man to examine his own 
life, thoughts and actions and, believing in a coming 
judgment, rest quite comfortable in the thought that he 
will have to give an account of every word, deed, thought 
in that future day of reckoning. Can a man think of 
even one day’s experiences in the light of the white holi- 
ness of God’s throne and feel quite at rest? How we 
fear even human scrutiny! The sight, even here, of a 

* Acts 24: 25. 22 Tim. 4:8. 
127 


128 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


judge, a lawyer, a court and jury before which we may 
be called to stand causes us to have a feeling of fear. 
How much more then the thought of the day when we 
shall be compelled to stand before Him whose eyes are 
like fire and whose feet are like brass that burneth in a 
furnace?* One may be inclined to say, ‘‘Oh, I have 
outgrown those Dantean, Miltonic ideas of judgment and 
hell; I have no fears any more regarding them.’’ But 
we are not dealing with ideas of the judgment as set 
forth by Dante and Milton, but with the statements of 
the inspired Word of God, the final arbiter of faith and 
destiny. A good deal would be accomplished if we could 
get people to reading the Bible more than they do and 
less of the human opinions about the Bible. Why are 
people—some of them Christians—content to remain sec- 
ond-hand believers? Why not study the sources of in- 


formation at first hand? I believe that much of the © 


spirit of braggadocio we see nowadays would vanish 
could we get people to listen to the sane teachings of 
the Word of God and not the vain imaginings of men. 
Have you, my reader, ever given the subject of the judg- 
ment any real thought for yourself? 

The subject is one of joy for the believer, for then he 
will receive his fulness of reward for the good he has 
done while in the body in this life. He does not always 
meet with approval for good here. Ofttimes he is eriti- 
cized, maligned, misrepresented, misjudged. But the 
day is coming when he will receive back every bit of 
good he has done for the Master. ‘‘Hope is sown for the 
righteous.’’* The wicked are not always punished here 
for their wickedness nor are the righteous always re- 
warded for the good they do. There is a day of reckon- 


* Rev. 1: 14, ‘Psa. 97: II. 


THE JUDGMENTS 129 


ing coming when both shall receive their due.” Of course 
the righteous has, even here, the reward that comes from 
the consciousness of having done the will of God and the 
right; that in itself is blessed; he has a bit of heaven 
here to begin with; he has the ‘‘earnest of the Spirit.’’* 
But the day of fulness of reward is coming. That will 
be a glad day. 


*‘When I hear the wicked call on the rocks and hills to 
fall; 
When I see them start and shrink from the fiery deluge 
brink— 
Then, dear Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how 
much I owe. 


“‘When I stand before the throne, dressed in beauty not 
my own; 
When I see Thee as Thou art, serve Thee with un- 
sinning heart— 
Then, dear Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how 
much I owe.’’ 


There are two outlooks spoken of in the Scriptures: 
one of gladness and one of dread and fear. ‘‘Unto them 
that look for him shall he appear the second time, with- 
out sin unto salvation.’’* There is the glorious outlook 
of the righteous. Then there is the dreadful prospect of 
the wicked: ‘‘A certain fearful looking for of judgment 
and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adver- 
saries.’’ © 

There are those who make strenuous objections to what 
they term ‘‘the appeal to the element of fear.’’ They 
tell us we should appeal to love and hope, to the highest 
motives in man. And that is true when such an appeal 


®Rom, 2:5. "3 Cor §?5. 
* Heb. 9: 28. ® Heb. 10:27; 12: 25-20. 


130 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


can be made; but there are men to whom nothing but 
the appeal to fear will move to right action. It is true 
that fear is the lowest of the motives that move men, but 
that it is cowardly to use it we deny. The Master used 
it many times. He did not think it beneath His dignity 
to warn men to “‘Fear not them that kill the body, and 
after that have no more that they can do; but I will 
forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him who after 
he hath killed, hath power to east both soul and body 
into hell; fear him.’’® Three times in one chapter He 
warns against the worm that dieth not and the fire that 
is never quenched.” Nor does He hesitate to warn against 
hell fire. We have become so delicate in our vocabulary 
that we speak of hell as hades to-day. We have changed 
our vocabulary because we have changed our faith. And 
what shall we say as to one of His pronouncements at 
the judgment: ‘‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into ever- 
lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. 

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment.’?’ ™ 
Was Jesus a coward in thus making appeal to fear? 
Why then should those who make the same appeal be 
accused of being cowardly, hard-hearted, and lacking in 
human compassion? The judge, lawyer, schoolmaster 
and doctor appeal to fear—are they cowardly? We see, 
to our deep regret, the result in some families where the 
parents have been too indulgent and have failed to ap- 
peal to the element of fear. A healthy, wholesome fear 
is a good, stimulating thing. There is something in God 
for the wicked to be afraid of. Let us not forget that. 
The Master used it; so may we. ‘‘The servant is not 
greater than his Lord.’’” 


®*Tuke 12: 4, 5. * Mark 9: 43-48. 
™ Matt. 25:41, 46. *% John 13: 16, 


THH JUDGMENTS 131 


Perhaps there is not enough appeal to fear and the 
conscience in the preaching of to-day. Men are not dis- 
turbed as they should be about their sins and future 
retribution. It would be a healthy thing methinks for 
both pulpit and pew had we more appeal made to the 
fact and certainty of a coming day of judgment. You 
do not think less of your doctor because he tells you that 
you have a cancer or tuberculosis, if his examination re- 
veals such conditions, do you? Certainly not; you are 
glad he has found out the real truth and warned you so 
that perhaps by care the days of your natural life may 
be lengthened. Nor do you call him an alarmist because 
he thus has diagnosed your condition. So is it and 
should always be with the true minister of the Gospel. 
He is under obligation to preach and proclaim what he 
finds in the Bible. If there is one thing certain in the 
divine revelation it is that some day every man and 
woman will have to stand before God and give account 
for the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or 
bad. And that preacher is a coward and unworthy of 
his trust who fails to thus warn. Men, methinks, would 
be more careful in their way of living were they to think 
‘of that coming day. 

I recall reading that when Luther was on trial before 
an ecclesiastical court, he spoke thoughtlessly, not taking 
time to consider the importance or results of what he 
might say. Then his attention was drawn to the fact 
that behind the judges’ bench two secretaries were mak- 
ing a record of all he said and that what he said would 
be used against him. ‘‘Then,’’ replied the reformer, ‘‘T 
shall have to be more careful what I say, seeing it will 
be used against me.’’ So it seems to me that we all 
would be more careful did we remember that what we 


132 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


say and do will be used for or against us in that great 
day. 

Few things in the Bible are more confidently affirmed 
than that there shall be such a future judgment day. 
As certain as the inviolable oath of God, as sure as the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, as infallible 
as the teaching of Jesus—so certainly is the fact of a 
judgment day recorded in the Bible. ‘‘It is appointed 
unto man once to die; and after this the judgment.’’ * 

‘‘There is the end of it all,’’ said a seeptic to a man 
standing by his side watching a funeral procession pass 
by. 

““No,’’ said his friend, ‘‘that is not the end, for after 
death comes the judgment; and what shall the end be 
of them that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ ?’’ 

“God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the 
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath or- 
dained; and hath given proof to all men in that he hath 
raised him [Jesus Christ] from the dead.’’“ ‘‘For we 
must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.’’* 
“God will bring into judgment every work with every 
secret thing, whether it be good or bad.’’* ‘‘In the day 
when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ 
according to my Gospel.’’” Not one living soul will 
escape coming up to the judgment. Even the Christian, 
for whom there is no judgment as to life and death, will 
have to appear before the judgment seat of Christ for 
the reward or loss of reward, for the ‘‘things done in 
the body, whether they be bad or good.’’ 

How solemn are those words found in the Revelation: 


* Heb. 9: 27. “Acts 17° 37, * 2 Cor. cere 
7° Rom. 2: 16, Rom. 2: 16. 


THE JUDGMENTS 133 


—‘‘And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat 
on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled 
away, and there was found no place for them. And I 
saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And 
the books were opened; and another book was opened, 
which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out 
of those things which were written in the books. And 
the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death 
and hades gave up the dead that were in them; and 
they were all judged out of the things which were writ- 
ten in the books. And whosoever was not found written 
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This 
is the second death.’’ * 

No one escaped, you see. Even the sea gave up its 
secrets. Sometime ago a man murdered one of his fel- 
low-fishermen and threw the body into Lake Michigan. 
The murderer fled, but after three or four days came 
back again to his house by the lake. And, lo, to his 
horror, the water washed up to the door of his house the 
body of the man he had murdered! So the sea gave up 
the dead which was in it. So in that great day the sea, 
death, the grave, yea, and hades, all will give up the dead 
that are in them. None shall escape the ordeal of the 
judgment. Eugene Aram’s corpse will not remain hid- | 
den: the brook-bed dries up and the wind blows away 
the leaves which cover it. No secret will be forever 
withheld. Oh, this is a thought that takes the glamour 
out of sin, whether open or secret. ‘‘Thou, God, seest 
me.’’?” ‘‘Prepare to meet thy God.’’” 

Let none be deluded by thinking that God is too good 
to bring men into judgment. Let us not abuse the 
glorious truth of the Fatherhood of God. It is not a 


#® Rev. 20: 12-15. | * Gen, 16: 13. *7 Amos 4:12. 


134 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


weak, sickly, effeminate thing. God is a righteous Fa- 
ther. How anxious the apostle Peter is to keep us from 
misunderstanding God when he says: ‘‘And if ye eall 
on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth 
according to every man’s work, pass the time of your 
sojourning here in fear.’’” One has well said that we 
look unto the Fatherhood of God for sweetness; Peter 
would have us see whiteness. We look for gentleness; 
Peter would have us look for holiness. We look to the 
Fatherhood of God for tender yearning over the sinner; 
Peter will not have us overlook the divine and Fatherly 
hostility towards sin. We associate with the Fatherhood 
of God the idea of the fireside; Peter would have us link 
it with the whiteness of the throne. We think of laxity; 
Peter will have us remember righteousness. When we 
speak of the Fatherhood of God we are apt to think only 
of the Father that pitieth, forgiveth and loveth—ideas 
which belong to the fireside in the home; Peter would 
have us remember that it is of a Father that judgeth 
and punisheth also that He would have us think. This 
is a striking, daring comparison of terms, is it not?” 
It is the wedlock of the Father and the Judge. And 
men should never forget this tremendous truth. ‘‘The 
Lord knoweth how to reserve the ungodly unto the judg- 
ment of the great day.’’® 


No GENERAL JUDGMENT 
Here again, as in the case of the resurrection, we need 
to be reminded that the Bible does not teach a ‘‘ general”? 
judgment day; a day when all, at the same time and 
place, shall stand before God to be judged. The fact 
of the matter is that there are a number of judgments 


"1 Pet. 1:17. * After Jowett. 5 Pet. 2io 


THE JUDGMENTS 135 


referred to in the Scriptures: that of Satan, of evil 
angels, of the world, of the living nations, of the judg- 
ment seat of Christ, of the Great White Throne. There 
ean be no intelligent understanding of the matter unless 
this fact is kept in mind. 

There is the gudgment of Satan. That took place at 
the Cross, in one sense; in a larger and fuller sense it 
is yet future. ‘‘Now is the judgment of this world; 
now shall the prince of this world be cast out.’?” ‘‘Of 
judgment, because the prince of this world hath been 
judged.’’* ‘‘I beheld Satan as lightning fallen from 
heaven.’’” ‘‘The accuser of the brethren is cast down, 
which accused them before our God, day and night.’’* 
** And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake 
of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false 
prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for 
ever and ever.’’” How little we know of the tre- 
mendous significance of the victory of the Cross and how 
far-reaching its effects! ‘‘And having spoiled princi- 
palities and powers, he made a show of them openly, 
triumphing over them in it.’’” Here is a dramatic pic- 
ture of Christ, by His death on the Cross, throwing off 
from Himself the hostile powers and principalities. 
‘‘The paradox of the Cross is here presented in the 
strongest light. Here is triumph in helplessness and 
glory in shame. The convict’s gibbet is the victor’s car. 
The seemingly vanquished is the triumphant victor. The 
point of most awful defeat is seen to be the very apex of 
imperishable triumph.’’” The evil principalities and 
powers—that means Satan and his angels—are flung off 

* John 12: 31, 32. *% John 16: 11. *Tuke 10: 18 


** Rev. 12: 10. *8 Rev. 20: I0. pfs Wa) BA a 
® See Weymouth. 


136 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


from Him, and He displays them as His conquered ene- 
mies. | | 

Here is a great truth for the Christian to grasp. Satan 
is a conquered enemy. The great adversary of the soul 
eannot lay a finger on the Christian without the divine 
permission, even as Satan could not lay a finger on Job 
without God permitting him to do so: ‘‘Hast thou not 
set a hedge about him, and all that he hath, so that I 
may not touch him?’’* ‘‘Simon, Simon, Satan hath 
made request for you that he might have you to sift 
you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee that thy faith 
fail not.’’” Of his own accord Satan could not sift 
Peter; he had to get permission even to sift the chaff 
out of the apostle. 

During this present age Satan has great power. He 
is the controlling force in the lives of the wicked. Just 
as the righteous are led by the Spirit of God™ so the 
wicked are led by Satan. He is the spirit that worketh 
in the children of disobedience.“ Satan is the head of 
the kingdom of darkness just as Jesus is the Head of the 
kingdom of light.” The devil is the prince and ruler of 
this world. ‘‘The whole world lieth in the lap of the 
evil one.’’?” Jesus never underestimated or ridiculed 
the power and existence of Satan as so many are doing 
to-day. To Jesus Satan and evil angels were as real as 
God and good angels. But Satan’s doom is inevitable. 
“God will bruise Satan under your feet shortly.’?® 
Eventually he will be cast into the lake of fire to be 
tormented day and night for ever and ever. The judg- 
ment pronounced upon Satan at the Cross insures his 
destruction. | 


S Job 1:9-11. “Luke 22:31, 32. “Rom. 8:14. “Eph. 2: 1-3. 
* Matt. 12: 26-28, * 1 John 5: 10. * Rom. 16: 20. 


THE JUDGMENTS 137 


There is then a judgment of this world. ‘*Now is the 
judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this 
world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up will draw 
all men unto me. This spake he signifying by what 
death he should die.’’* By the world is meant that 
system or order of things antagonistic to God and hostile 
to His will and purposes. So Satan is the god of this 
world [age].” In this created world in which we live 
there is a system, an organized Satanic system, which is 
doomed, judgment having been pronounced upon it at 
the Cross. There have been great crises in the world’s 
history, but none so great as that which took place at the 
Cross—the judgment of this world. At the Cross the 
world showed its attitude towards God and His Christ. 
The rejection of Christ is a world as well as an indi- 
vidual problem. The world must be dealt with for its 
treatment of the Christ problem. There is a world-con- 
sciousness and a world-guilt. Some day this world will 
come to see its error in the rejection and crucifixion of 
the Son of God. The Cross is a revelation of the world’s 
standards of life and its estimates of values; also its 
views of the Son of God and His atoning death. Some 
day this world will have to face God and give an account 
for its treatment of His Son. And that is true, too, of 
those systems, movements, and tendencies in the world 
to-day which are antagonistic to Christ, be they political, 
military, social, economic, educational. The wisdom of 
this world,” too, is doomed, and so are those who use it 
to despoil souls of their faith in God and religion. It is 
no smal] matter when educational institutions and pro- 
fessors destroy the faith of our youth by injecting 
doubt and unbelief into their minds. The godless, 


® John 12:31, 32. "5. Cor. 4° 4. “7 Cor. 236 


138 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


Christless and irreligious legislation of this world will 
also come up before the judgment. This world with its 
countenancing of the opium and drink traffic and such 
things as destroy the bodies and souls of men will have 
to face the judgment. Nations as well as individuals 


ten RTT aise a CONN natalia na ot 


shall come up for judgment: “And before - him shall be 

gathered all the nations. ein V4 a‘ 
- It is for this reason that we are commanded not to 
love the world. We must set our affections on God and 
the things which abide forever. ‘‘Love not the world 
neither the things that are in the world. For all that 
is in the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, 
and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the 
world: and the world passeth away and the lust thereof; 
but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.’’ ® 
There are those who make light of the statement of 
divine writ that this old world will one day be brought 
face to face with a great crisis of judgment. They de- 
clare that things are going to continue on their even way 
as they have done since the beginning of the creation. 
Peter tells us about such people: ‘‘In the last days, 
seoffers shall come, walking after their own lusts and 
saying: Where is the promise of his coming, for since 
the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were 
from the beginning of the ereation. For this they are 
willingly ignorant of, that by the word of God the 
heavens that were of old, and the earth standing out of 
the water and in the water; whereby the world that then 
was, being overflowed with water, perished; but the 
heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word 
are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of 
judgment and perdition of ungodly men.’’“ So when 


Meath. a5 3/32, “1 John 2: 15-17. @2 Pet: s14% 


THE JUDGMENTS 139 


men say this old world is not doomed they willingly and 
stubbornly close their eyes to patent and divinely re- 
vealed facts. 

And so is the wisdom of this world doomed. ‘‘The. 
world by its wisdom knew not God.’’ All that goes. 
under the name of learning, scholarship, advanced 
thought, science, ete., and that is contrary to the Christ 
and His Cross is doomed. God will ‘‘take the wise in 
their own craftiness.’’ ‘‘The wisdom of this world 
. . « will come to nought.’’? Our faith is to stand not 
- in the wisdom of men, but in the power and wisdom of 
God. And perhaps we should say here that every in- 
stitution and every teacher promulgating teaching that 
is antagonistic to Christ and His Cross is doomed. And 
this note needs to be sounded far and wide to-day. This 
is an age in which we worship education. We have made 
a god out of scholarship. The university has become 
more than the Church and the professor than the 
prophet. This is a reversal of true values and spells 
doom. We do not need to get away from Christ for 
advancement in knowledge, for ‘‘in him are hid all the 
treasures of wisdom and knowledge; and we are com- 
plete in him.’’“ There is an advance in knowledge 
which is not progress but apostasy, and that is any ad- 
vanee in knowledge that takes us away from Christ. 
Advance in Christ there may be, but advancement away 
from Christ there must not be. It is against this danger 
that John in his second epistle warns us: ‘‘ Whosoever 
goeth onward [desireth to take the lead, the preéminence, 
to be counted as an advanced thinker] and abideth not 
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath not God.’’* 

There is also a judgment of the believer’s sins. This, 

e Cola ss: ®2 John 7-9. 


140 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


too, took place at the Cross. Oh, how wonderful is the 
Cross! How much that concerns us and our salvation 
took place on that rugged hill outside the city wall of 
Jerusalem! ‘‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that 
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, 
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, 
but is passed out of death into life.’’“ The moment a 
man believes in Jesus Christ as Saviour and accepts 
Him as such, that very moment the sin question is set- 
tled; never again will it be brought up as to eternal life 
and death. That matter was settled once for all at the 
Cross. A judgment against the believer’s sins took place 
there and God will not again bring them into judg- 
ment: ‘‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just 
to forgive us our sins.’’ 

Mark you, it is not the merey of God, but His justice 
and righteousness that guarantees the forgiveness of sin 
to the truly penitent. Jesus bore the believer’s sins on 
the Cross; He bore their guilt and punishment. To 
punish the penitent sinner who believes in Jesus would 
be to punish sin a second time,” which would be a breach 
of faith with the vicarious Sufferer and an injustice to 
the sinner himself who, in the person of his Substitute, 
has suffered and died. ‘‘There is therefore now no con- 
demnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.’?“ ‘‘There- 
fore being justified by faith we have peace with God 
through our Lord Jesus Christ.’?” The sin which con- 
stituted a barrier between God and the sinner has been 
removed by the death of Christ. We are reconciled;™ 
God is propitiated.” 

“John 5: 14. “+ John 1:09. 


®Cf. Num. 20: 10-13; Heb. 9: 26-28. “Rom. 8:1. “Rom. 5:1, 
m2 Cor: 5218-20; ? Tuke 18:13 R. V. M.; Rom. 3: 25. 


THE JUDGMENTS 141 


**My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought— 
My sin, not in part but the whole, 
Is nailed to His Cross and I bear it no more, 
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O, my soul!’’ 


There 7s a judgment, however, in connection with the 
believer and his sins. That is a judgment by the be- 
liever upon himself. ‘‘But let a man examine himself, 
and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. 

For if we would judge ourselves, we should not 
be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened 
of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the 
world.’’* Yet, strictly speaking, the sin here referred 
to does not concern so much the Christian’s sins and sin- 
ful habits as it concerns himself—that he should allow 
such to have any place in his life as a redeemed child 
of God, for whom the power of Satan has been broken 
and who is indwelt by One who is greater than he that 
is in the world. Victory has been guaranteed by the 
Cross and the believer should not permit himself to be 
overcome by defeated enemies.. That is the matter for 
judgment. 

““And I have wounded Thee. , 

Wounded the dear, dear hand that held me fast? 

1 


% 2% He Ee % 4 

Sorrow and bitter grief replace my bliss; 
I have no room for any other thought than this— 
That I have sinned, have wounded Thee. 

* % K x K x if 
O, how could I grieve Thee so? 
Thou could’st have kept. . 
My fall was not the failure of Thy Word. 

* % ye He % % Eo 
O, Saviour, bid me go and sin no more.’’ 


%y Cor. Ir: 28-32. 


142 AFTER DEATH—WH£T THEN? 


We come next to consider the judgment seat of, 
Christ“ This is a judgment for Christians alone. It 
is one that does not concern the question of eternal life 
or death. That question was settled once for all, as we 
have already seen, when the believer accepted Christ as 
his atoning Redeemer. This Judgment is for the award- 
ing of the saints. It is for the revealing of the sons of 
God. In this world the Christian does not always re- 
ceive his reward for the good he has done. The day is 
coming when he will, however. ‘‘For we must all be 
manifested before the judgment seat of Christ; that 
every one may receive the things done in his body ac- 
eording to that which he hath done, whether it be good 
or bad.’’?™ That the reference here is to believers only 
is clear from the entire context. There awaits a mani- 
festing, a revealing, of the sons of God.” We travel im 
cogmito here in this world. We are really the sons of 
God here, but it doth not appear so to the world. Some 
day it will be revealed. ‘‘Behold what manner of love 
the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be 
called the children of God; and such we are. For this 
cause the world knoweth us not, because it knew him 
not. Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it 
is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know 
that when it shall be manifested we shall be hke him 
for we shall see him as he is.”??” Some day the child of 
God will stand out in all his royal dignity and glory. 
What a day of rejoicing that will be! 

The believer is saved by faith; he is rewarded accord- 
ing to his works. There will be degrees of reward in 
heaven as there will be degrees of punishment in hell. 


> 'Cor. 5’: 10. Rom. 8: 19-21. 
mT Johnie 1, 2 


THE JUDGMENTS 143 


Some will be set over ten cities, others over five.” Some 
will be punished with many stripes, others with few.” 
Every Christian’s cup will be full, no doubt, but, as 
some one has well said, ‘‘all cups will not be of the same 
size.’’ Some Christians will be saved yet, so as by fire,” 
that is to say they themselves will be saved but their 
works will be burnt up. Others will receive an abundant 
entrance” into the glory land, like a ship coming into 
harbour under full sail. No Christian can sin with im- 
punity. Every sin brings judgment, yea, and loss, too. 
Every neglect of duty brings loss of reward. ‘‘Beware 
that no man take thy crown.’’” When a Christian sins 
and then confesses and puts that sin away, is that the 
end of it? It isso far as its guilt being taken away and 
its being forgiven is concerned. But that is not all there 
is to it. Judgment, in the sense of discipline, yea and 
loss of reward, follows that sin.” This is what should 
make a Christian walk humbly after he has committed 
asin. There is far too much levity connected with for- 
giveness. We should feel a sense of shame that we, who 
have been redeemed by His blood and made heirs through 
His grace, should think so little of Him as to grieve Him 
and wound Him afresh with our sin. One sometimes 
feels that, after committing a sin and confessing it, he 
does not want to sing but rather walk humbly before 
the Lord. To be wounded in the house of one’s friends * 
is very much more hurtful than to be wounded by one’s 
enemies. ‘‘Et tu, Brute!’ 

The Christian is not always rewarded in this life. 
‘*Hope is sown for the righteous.’’ The future will re- 


® Tuke 19: 17-19. ® Luke 12:47, 48 
™y Cor. 3: 15. W2 Pet 125u “ Rev. 3: If. 
x Cor. I1:'20-32. s Zech.\13¢ 0, 


144 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


veal the harvest. The inheritance, which is incorrupti- 
ble and undefiled, is laid up for the Christian.“ This 
does not mean that he does not have an experience of 
blessedness here. He does; but the fulness of his re- 
ward is in the future. Nor does it mean that in order 
for the Christian to save his soul for the future he must 
lose the best there is in this hfe. That is a wrong con- 
ception of the Master’s words: ‘‘For what shall it profit 
a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own 
soul?’?® A man does not have to lose the best there 
is in this life in order to gain heaven. Nor does it fol- 
low that the man who loses his soul gets the best there 
is in this world. He may lose the best in this life and 
also in that life to come. We value things not for what 
they are in themselves, but for the satisfaction they are 
eapable of yielding to us; and the true Christian gets a 
hundred times more out of the present life than he did 
before he began to make sacrifices for his divine Master. 
‘‘ And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, 
or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or 
lands, for my sake shall receive a hundredfold in this 
life, and in the world to come life everlasting.’’ ® 

There is also the judgment of the living nations.” It 
is recorded in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew. A 
eareful reading shows us that it is not a judgment of 
individuals but of nations. Further, we believe it to bea 
judgment of those nations that have had partictilar re- 
lation to, and dealings with, God’s Chosen People, the 
Jews. This particular Judgment, we feel, should not be 
considered in any other light. Too often we hear it made 
the basis of a doctrine of salvation by works—which 


“; Pet, 124-5. ® Mark 8: 36. 
*® Matt. 19:29; Mark 10: 29, 30. * Matt. 25: 31-46. 


THE JUDGMENTS 145 


eannot be, of course, for were that true, it would be 
contrary to the analogy of faith and the general tenor 
of Scripture teaching, which clearly shows that salva- 


* tion is absolutely by grace without any works of our 


own. ‘To add one single work of ours to the finished 
work of Christ would be to insult the Spirit of God. 
Social service must look elsewhere for any doctrine of 
salvation by works it may desire to base on this par- 
ticular judgment. Social service is a blessed thing; but 
it should not be forgotten that it is a service and not a 
Gospel. It follows faith in Christ. The Gospel needs 
no adjective, such as ‘‘social’’ before it, and he who thus 
amends it thereby shows his ignorance of the true nature 
of the Gospel. Works follow, they do not precede faith. 
And works will follow faith; they cannot help it. A man 
may have works without faith—we see that on every 
hand. But no man ean have faith and not works, for 
‘faith without works is dead, being alone.’’ Can that 
faith save? Certainly not. Works have an important 
place in the Christian life; they follow faith; they are 
the basis of the Christian’s reward, but they are not a 
ticket of entrance into heaven. 

That this judgment of the living nations is not to be 
confounded with that of the Great White Throne is clear 
from the fact thaf it is the living and not the dead that 
are before Christ for judgment; and, further, Christ is 
dealing with nations and not individuals (‘‘every 
man’’) “ as is the case in the last judgment. God will . 
deal with nations for their conduct even as He deals with 
individuals. This point need not be argued with those 
who are acquainted with the contents of the Old Testa- 


* Rom. 3:10, 20; Gal. 2:16, 21; 3:10; Eph. 2:5-8. 
™ Jas. 2: 14-20. ” Rev. 20: 13. 


146 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


ment. God dealt with the nations of Assyria, Babylon, 
Egypt, and other nations for their treatment of His peo- 
ple Israel, and He will do so again. ‘‘I will bless them 
that bless thee and curse them that curse thee.’??“ We 
see the truth of this in history. Those nations that have 
been kind to Israel have been blessed and those nations 
that have persecuted them have been cursed. God still 
has His eye on His chosen people. He is not through 
with them yet. They are yet to play an important part 
in the world’s history as the present revival among them 
shows. We of to-day need to keep our eye on Palestine 
and the Jew. Let the nations of the earth beware how 
they treat this people. The day of their return has 
begun—and God will finish what He has begun, all the 
malice and spite of man to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing.” 

We come, finally, to the judgment of the Great White 
Throne.” This is the last and greatest assize. Here is 
the record of it: ‘‘And I saw a great white throne, and 
him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the 
heaven fled away; and there was found no place for 
them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand be- 

fore God: and the books were opened: and another book 
“was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were 
judged out of those things which were written in the 
books, according to their works. And the sea gave up 
the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered 
up the dead which were in them; and they were judged 
every man according to his works. And death and hell 
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 
And whosoever was not found written in the book of 
life was cast into the lake of fire.’’® 


™ Gen. 12: 3. ” Rom. 11, .. “Rev. 20: ra-38, 


THE JUDGMENTS 147 


That this is the resurrection of the wicked dead is clear 
from the preceding verses of this chapter which deseribe 
the resurrection of the righteous dead who have been 
raised and reigning with Christ a thousand years.” 
Those remaining in their graves after the resurrection 
of the righteous are called the rest of the dead,” those 
who have no part whatever in the first resurrection ; they 
are not priests of God and of Christ, nor are they among 
the holy ones; they are the wicked, who are now to stand 
before the Great White Throne to meet their doom. 

Reference is here made to the books and to the book 
of life. The dead were judged out of the things recorded 
in ‘‘the books.’’ The ‘‘book of life’’ is there to bear 
witness to the fact that the names of those to be now 
judged are not written therein. None of those whose 
names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will be in 
this judgment. When the Book of Life is opened the 
names of the wicked are not found there. When their 
names are called there is no one to stand for them. Can 
we now appreciate what Jesus meant when He said: 
‘*Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I 
confess before my Father which is in heaven. But who- 
soever shall deny me before men, him will I deny before 
my Father and the holy angels.’?” Here are men that 
were too cowardly to acknowledge Jesus down here on 
the earth; now their own names stand unacknowledged 
before the Throne. When the Book of Life is opened, 
my friend, will your name be found there?” Will you 
have any one to confess you before the Father? Will 
there be any one to stand up for you in that day? When 
the Book of Life is opened will there be a blank where 


™ Rev. 20: 3-6. ® Rev. 20: 5. 
® Matt. 10: 32, 33. ™ Luke 10: 20. 


148 3 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


your name should have been? We are told that when 
Napoleon died on the island of St. Helena, his companion 
in exile and faithful friend went to the Governor-Gen- 
eral of the island and announced the fact of the ex- 
emperor’s death, at the same time asking permission to 
have the words: ‘‘Napoleon, Emperor’’ carved on the 
tombstone. This permission was refused. And so, we 
are told, the tombstone bore this inscription: ‘‘ Here lies 
one with no name.’’? How tragic an ending to what 
might have been a most wonderful life! Will your end- 
ing be as tragic as that when the Book of Life is opened? 


“‘Lord, I care not for riches, neither silver nor gold; 
I would make sure of heaven, I would enter the fold; 
In the Book of Thy kingdom, on tts pages so fair: . 
Tell me, Jesus my Saviour—Is my name written there? 


“Is my name written there, on its pages so fair? 
In the book of Thy kingdom—Is my name written 
there?’? 


The ‘‘books’’ were there and opened in order that the 
judgment meted out might be in accordance with each 
man’s record. Every man is judged according to the 
things written in the books. Every man will get a square 
deal in the judgment. And there will be degrees of 
punishment, too. A man’s life and its opportunities 
and privileges will be taken into consideration. It shall 
be more tolerable “ for some than for others. Some will 
be punished with many stripes, others with few.” There 
will be no respect of persons” in the judgment of that 
day. It was said of Jesus during the days of His flesh: 
*“Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, 
neither acceptest thou the person of any, for thou re- 

*% Luke 10: 12, ® Luke 12:47, 48. Rom. 2:11. 





THE JUDGMENTS 149 


81 


gardest not the person of men.’’” What was true of 
Jesus then will be true of Him in that day of judgment. 
Every mask will be torn off, and men will appear in 
their true character before Him, irrespective of station, 
position, scholarship, ignorance, wealth or poverty. 
‘‘Hor there is no respect of persons with God.’’ ‘‘For 
as many as have sinned without law, shall perish without 
law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be 
judged by the law, in the day when God shall reveal the 
secrets of men by Jesus Christ.’’” ‘‘There is, of course, 
an infinite diversity in both mental and moral charac- 
teristics in the various members of the human race, and 
in their worldly position and possessions. These out- 
ward distinctions often serve as a mask [persona] more 
or less completely hiding from the individual and from 
others the soul or spirit within which constitutes the real 
and enduring man and is common to the whole race. 
The glance, however, of our one Father penetrates 
through the mask. In His dealings with us He ignores 
outward distinctions, and does not accept any one’s 
‘“person.”’ 

Christ ts to be the Judge. This truth must not be 
overlooked. ‘‘The Father judgeth no man, but hath 
committed all judgment unto the Son; that all men 
should honour the Son even as they honour the Father; 
he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father 
which hath sent him.’’* ‘‘God hath appointed a day in 
which he will judge the world in righteousness by that 
man whom he hath ordained; and hath given assurance 
to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead.’’™ 
**In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by 


®* Luke 20: 21. ® Rom. 2: 16, 
8 John 5: 22, 23. * Acts 17<2t, 


150 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


Jesus Christ.’?” ‘‘Jesus Christ, who shall judge the 
quick and the dead.’’™ ‘‘The Son of Man shall come 

and before him shall be gathered all the na- 
tions. ‘‘God hath committed all judgment unto the 
Son because he is the Son of Man.’’™ 

Men try to evade Christ and His claims to-day, and 
they seem to succeed in doing so. The day will surely 
and certainly come when they cannot evade Him. They 
will have to meet Him face to face. Jesus Christ and 
His claims must be faced sooner or later. No man can 
ultimately and finally avoid them. The day will come 
when ‘‘every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess 
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.’’® 
Would it not be better to face Him and His claims now, 
and acknowledge Him freely and by faith as Saviour 
than to have to be compelled to bow in fear and dread 
and have to acknowledge Him as Judge and hear Him 
say: ‘‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire 
prepared for the devil and his angels’’?” ‘‘Be wise, ye 
sons of men. Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye 
_ perish by the way.’’” 

This great fact that Christ is to be the Judge seems 
to be the warning note of the epistle to the Hebrews 
which speaks so solemnly of ‘‘a fearful looking for of 
judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the 
adversaries’? of the Christ. ‘‘For if we sin wilfully 
(that is if after all the proofs we have had presented to 
us regarding Christ and His sacrificial work we turn 
away from Him) after that we have received the knowl- 
edge of truth, there remaineth no more (a, or other)- 
sacrifice for sin, but a certain fearful looking for of 


>> 86 


> Tim. 4:1. Matt. 25 * 30, 31. “John St27 
* Phil. 2: 9-11. © Matt. 25:41; 7:23. ° Psa. 2:02 


THE JUDGMENTS 151 


judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the 
adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without 
merey under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer 
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be counted worthy who 
hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath 
eounted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was 
sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite to 
the Spirit of grace. For we know him that saith, 
Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord; and 
again, The Lord shall judge his people. . . . For 
our God is also a consuming fire. . . . Itisa fearful 
thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’’” Think 
you that in the face of these solemn Scriptures men can 
reject the Son of God, treat lightly His claims, scorn His 
Cross as the divine way of forgiveness—and get away 
with it? 

Surely no man is foolish enough to believe that in the 
face of this evidence. Jesus Christ and His claims must 
be met—shall it be—now, or then? When shall it once 
be? The deciding question of the Judgment will be a 
twofold one: ‘‘What think ye of the Christ?’’ and 
‘*What shall I do with Jesus which is called Christ?’ ” 
On the answer to this twofold question hangs the eternal 
destiny of men. Let us not misstate this matter; let us 
understand it clearly. Christ is the issue of eternity. 
‘‘For this crisis eame I into this world.’’ The Man of 
the Cross is the Man of the Throne. If you have shared 
with Him in His Cross, you shall also share with Him 
in the glory of His throne. If, however, you have re- 
fused Him here, you will be banished from Him there. 
There must be no confusing of the issue. Let us be 
clear about that. Peter, in his second epistle, makes this 


™ Heb. 10: 27-31: 12: 20. @ Matt. 22:\423 27." 22: 


Ul 


152 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


point clear. He says that “‘the denial of the Lord that 
bought them’’ is the sin that is brought up before the 
judgment, and which brings ‘“‘swift destruction upon 
men.’’™ 

The fact that Jesus is to be the Judge guarantees a 
square deal to every man. All judgment is committed 
to Jesus Christ ‘‘because he is the Son of Man.’’™ This 
assures us of all needed sympathy at the judgment. He 
understands all about our circumstances: ‘‘I know where 
thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is, and hast not 
denied my name.’’” He knows what a struggle it took 
to confess Him amid such surroundings. He under- 
stands the circumstances under which we had to live our 
life, fight our battles and meet our temptations. ‘‘He 
was tempted in all points like as we are, sin apart.’’™ 
‘“We have not an high priest that cannot be touched 
with the feelings of our infirmities.’? How comforting, 
in the light of this truth, the words of Revelation: ‘‘T 
know,’’ ‘‘T know,’’ ‘‘I know.’’” 

There will be no man in that day that will find fault 
with the judgment. He will acknowledge that he has 
received a square deal. ‘‘The judge of all the earth 
will do right;’’ ‘‘God is righteous; I and my people are 
wicked.’’ ® 


MoPeéte 20555) % John’s +27. 4 "= Rey, (2813, hse Feber 
Pf Rew 222, 0010253 NT G.5re: * Gen. 18:25; Exod. 9: 27. 


te : ; 
a) ‘ , .— - 
ae eee a Oe ee ee ee ee 


IX 
FUTURE RETRIBUTION 


q “SHE term ‘‘retribution’’ is to be preferred to 
that of ‘‘punishment.’’ The idea of vindic- 
tiveness has been associated in the minds of 

many people with the former word and it is very diffi- 

eult to dissociate that idea from their conception of pun- 
ishment. The thought of revenge was not in the word 
as originally used; it is entirely foreign to its meaning. 

For this reason, therefore, we use the word ‘‘retribu- 

tion.’’ 

The subject of future retribution is a most difficult one 
to speak or write about. No one should speak or write | 
about it unless through tears. Not to be broken-hearted 
is to be hard-hearted. To proclaim all the truth as it is’ 
revealed in the Word of God and not offend some who 
read or hear is a practical impossibility. Most people 
have formed very decided opinions regarding the sub- 
ject of future retribution. The topic is such an awful 
one that many people shut their ears to the truth. They 
simply will not listen. They say, in the words of the 
prophet of old: ‘‘Prophesy unto us smooth things.’’* 
The doctrine of hell is an alarming subject and there are 
many people who most seriously object to being alarmed. 
Again in the words of the prophet they say: ‘‘ Prophesy 
unto us peace.’’ But how ean a true messenger say: 
**Peace, peace, when there is no peace’’?? 

All extremes should be avoided in the discussion of 

eer. B30, 2 Jer. 6: 14. 
153 


154 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


this subject. This is at once admitted. All the facts 
should be presented; nothing should be left out; yet 
radicalism should be avoided. There are those who 
preach hell with vigour and neglect heaven. On the 
other hand there are those who lay great emphasis on 
heaven but ignore hell altogether. All-heaven and all- 
hell preaching should alike be avoided. We should give 
each condition and place its due proportion in our think- 
ing and proclamation. ‘To leave out any one fact con- 
nected with either heaven or hell is fatal to a real con- 
clusion. We must have all the facts in the case. No 
evidence should be withheld. 

It has been well said that the discussion of this sub- 
ject must be loving and true. To be tolerant without 
being truthful is not being loving; it is unkind; it is 
- eruel; it is cowardly. Yet, as has been said, to tell the 
truth without being broken-hearted is to be hard-hearted. 
It is worthy of note that the twenty-third chapter of 
Matthew—that chapter so full of invectives hurled by 
the Master at the hypocrisy of the Pharisees—ends with 
a sob and in tears: ‘‘And Jesus . . . wept.’?* A 
man, who had listened to cardinal Newman preach, came 
to his house one day and desired an interview. The 
ealler was ushered into the library of the cardinal’s home. 
Soon the prelate came down-stairs and in a very cordial 
way greeted the caller. ‘‘My friend, what can I do for 
4 you?’’ asked Newman. 

‘“Well,’? said the visitor, ‘‘didn’t you say in your 
sermon yesterday that Jesus was love?’’ 

‘‘T did. But why do you ask? Do you not believe 
chile Ge 

‘I certainly do not,’’? answered the visitor. ‘‘Read 

® Matt. 23: 37. 


FUTURE RETRIBUTION 155 


that, and after reading it tell me if you can still say that 
Jesus was love.’’ 

The cardinal took the proffered Testament which the 
visitor had opened at the twenty-third chapter of 
Matthew. He looked it over carefully and then began 
to read it aloud, as he thought Jesus uttered it— 
with a heart full of love and compassion. When he had 
finished he turned to give back the Testament to the 
ealler, and found him in tears. 

‘“What is the matter, my friend?’’ asked Newman. 

‘“Oh, I was just thinking that if Jesus said those words 
as you have read them, He must have been loving.’’ 

So should it be with our presentation of the subject of 
future retribution. We should be true, yet loving—lov- 
ing, yet true. 

The subject, fortunately, is not a matter of mere hu- 
man opinion; it is not a subjective affair. It is a matter 
of divine revelation; it is objJective—the evidence is out- 
side of ourselves in the last analysis. Of course con- 
science and intuition may help to corroborate revelation, 
but, ultimately, the Bible is the court of final appeal. 
The subject of future retribution is found between the 
covers of the Bible—and quite prominently, too. This 
cannot reasonably be denied. It is, of course, the duty 
of the ambassador of heaven to proclaim what is within 
that revelation. It is not his to argue nor reason why 
it should be thus and so any more than the United States 
ambassador has any right to question the wisdom or 
correctness of any message that may be sent to him from 
his Government to present to.a Foreign Court or Govern- 
ment. He is but the mouthpiece, for the time being, of 
the State. ‘‘Now then we are ambassadors for Christ.’ * 


72 Cotes: 20 


156 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


We do not create the message; we deliver it. It is not 
ours to even defend it; it is ours to proclaim it. As to 
whether it is just or compatible with our own ideas as 
to what the message ought to be is no concern of ours. 
We have but one thing to do, and that is to deliver the 
message. The results are with God not with the preacher. 
Sometimes the deliverance of a government’s message to 
another government results in the ambassador being sent 
home. But that is what he is to expect. He is there to 
do his duty to his own government and country let the 
results be what they may. So the preacher is not the 
creator of his message; nor is he called upon to argue 
for its truth and reasonableness; whether it is compati- 
ble or not with other phases of the divine character is 
not his concern. Once assured that he has the message 
of the King,’ he has no alternative but to deliver it—let 
consequences be what they may. The preacher does not 

originate his message; he delivers it. 
, The doctrine of heaven.and.hellrise.or.fall.together,. 
for both rest.upon the same divine.revelation—the Word 
of God. Itisnota question as to what we as individuals 
may think about the matter,.but what the inspired Word 
of God declares relative to the subject. The matter is 
one of objective revelation, not of subjective speculation. 
Both heaven and hell are described in metaphoric, sym- 
bolic and allegoric terms, and both have the word ‘‘ever- 
jlasting’’* attached to them. Some one has said that if 
the threatenings of God are unreliable, so are His prom- 
ises; and if His denunciations are empty, what becomes 
|| of His invitations? It was John Ruskin who said that 
\\**the denial of hell was most damaging because the most 
attractive form of infidelity.’? Its denial is as old as the 
°Jer. 23:28; Jonah 3:2. * Matt. 25: 46. 





FUTURE RETRIBUTION 157 


human race, for even in Eden Satan said: ‘‘ Ye shall no 
die.’ * 

Future retribution formed an important part of the 
teaching of Jesus and the revelation of God and the fu- 
ture life which He brought to mankind. A careful study 
of all the passages in which our Lord makes reference to 
the subject clearly shows us that it formed not merely an 
incidental but a most fundamental part of His doctrine 
regarding the future state.” It formed the dark back- 
ground from which the redeeming love of God shone 
forth in magnificent relief. But it was surely there as 
a background. He did not ignore it. And the Gospel 
loses much of its force when this subject is neglected. 
The fact of it shows the urgency of repentance in this 
life, a duty which cannot be postponed until the future 
when it will be too late. 

The religion of Jesus Christ is one of rescue_as well as 
repair. It delivers men from something as well as saves | : 
them for something. It rescues them from wrath to ’ 
come* as well as keeping them in this life and giving 
them at last an abundant entrance into the kingdom of 
the Father.” It gives pardon, peace, power and joy 
here; it crowns our victorious struggles at last with the 
divine glory; but it also delivers us from hell and ever- 
lasting punishment.” Let us not overlook this fact. 
That Jesus taught this doctrine should be an end to all 
controversy on the subject as to whether there is such 
a place and condition or not. If it can be shown from 


* Gen. 3:4. 
® See Matt. 5:22, 20, 30; 7:10; z. 12; 10:28; 13:41, 42, 40, 503 
22:13; 25:30, 31, 41, 46; 23:15, 33; Mark 3:20; 5:20; 9:43- 
49; Luke 13:28; 12:4, 5; 12:47, 48; John 8: 21, 24; Rev. 20: 10, 
14, 15; John ts: 6, etc. 
* Rom. R062 Thess. 1-102, 2 Pet. 1:17, .)" Matt: 25 * 46: 


158 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


a fair, grammatical, contextual, exegetical interpreta- 
tion of the teaching of Jesus that He actually taught 
such a condition of life beyond the grave, then we ought 
to believe it no matter how great may be the difficulties 

‘though, perhaps, not Hane for us to proclaim Bs 
‘ ‘There are certain things which, we think, should be 
conceded in the considerationof-the-matter..of future 
retribution. 

The first is that there will be. a, difference.in. the con- 
dition of the righteous and the wicked in the next world. 
This should be clearly and fairly admitted. If we give 
to the justice of heaven the same common sense. that, we. 
give to.the justice of earth, ‘then somewhere in the next 
world we will place.a-penitentiary where the wicked are ~ 
kept. The presence of a clean city implies the existence 
of commons where all that is unclean is cast. Surely. 
we do not think for a single moment that Czolgosz and 
McKinley, Guiteau and Garfield, “Booth and Lincoln, 
Judas and Paul, Herod and Christ are in the same place. | 
Surely no serious-minded man would, for a moment, en- 
tertain such an idea.” If there were no hell we would 
feel that there ought to be one for the wicked. So we _ 
conclude, even apart from the revelation of the divine 
Word, that there is a different destiny for the good and 
the bad,,.the righteous and the wicked, the godly and 
ungodly, the chaff and wheat. ‘‘Say ye to the righteous 
that it shall be well with him, but woe to the wicked.’’* 
‘Tet me die the death of the righteous, and let my last 
end be like his.’’” ‘‘The wicked is driven away in his 
wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in his death.’ 


Gen. 18: 25. Numbers 23: 10. 
Num. 23: 10. *“ Prov. 10; 283 41? 2, 


FUTURE RETRIBUTION 159 


‘And they (those who feared the Lord) shall be mine, 
saith Jehovah of hosts, even mine own possession, in the 
day when I do act. And I will spare them as a man 
spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye 
return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, 
between him that serveth God and him that serveth him 
not. And ye shall tread down the wicked, and they 
shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in that day 
that I do act, saith Jehovah of hosts. But unto you that 
fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with 
healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and gambol 
as the calves of the stall.’’ * 

In the next place we will admit, I feel sure, that the 
Judge of all the earth will do right; that He will give 
every man a square deal; that He will take into consid- 
eration the Rrcametingss and setting of a man’s life, 
his environment and what comes to him from heredity, 
the opportunities or privileges that have been his and 
those of which he has been deprived. All this, we feel 
sure, we have shown in our discussion of The Judgment 
by the Son of Man.” The fact that it will be more 
tolerable “ for some than for others predicates a differ- 
ence in the standard of judgment and its awards. 

Further, we will admit that the lack of details sufficient 
to satisfy our knowledge or perhaps curiosity is not a 
valid argument against the existence and reality of fu- 
ture retribution. There are very many details lacking 
in the Biblical deseription of heaven, but we do not con- 
sider that to be an argument against the existence or 
reality of heaven. ‘‘No one knows where, in the plane- 
tary system, the earth is, whether near or far from the 
centre of the universe; or in what direction, up or down 


* Mal. 3: 16-18. * See pp. 149, 150. ™ Matt. 11: 20-24.. 


160 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


it is moving, or what are the bounds of space. Yet the 
earth is real; it has a place, and is moving in spite of 
our ignorance of these details. 

We will all acknowledge, too, I am sure, that prejudice 
will shut our eyes to fact and truth. The trouble with 
a bigot is that the more light you throw into him the 
blinder he becomes. It is quite easy, and shall we say 
quite natural, to become prejudiced with regard to an 
unpleasant subject like this one of future retribution. 
We need, therefore, to be on our guard against prejudice 
in considering it. I heard of a man who, being quite 
hostile to the deity of Christ and His physical resurrec- 
tion, asked a second-hand book-dealer to set aside for 
him any book that came into the store that argued against 
both these great facts connected with Christ. This man 
had a closed mind to truth. It is said of a certain well- 
known professor that, on seeing a newly-discovered geo- 
logical specimen that controverted one of his theories, 
he quietly said: ‘‘If no one were looking I would be 
glad to throw that fossil out of the window.’’ That is 
what we call holding a prejudiced mind. No truth can 
get in there, and as the late Professor Hyatt, of Har- 
vard, once said that ‘‘a scientific man who has a theory 
to support is as stubbornly difficult to convince as any 
other man.”’ 

There is a story told of a farmer who was visiting a 
zoo. He stood amazed as he looked at a dromedary 
with a great hump on its back. When he was told that 
there was yet another animal with two humps on its 
back he ridiculed the idea, and swore that there could not 
be such a freak animal. When, later, he was shown a 
eamel, and his attention drawn to the two humps on 
its back, he exclaimed with an emphatic shake of the 


FUTURE RETRIBUTION 161 


foot: ‘‘I tell you there ain’t no such animal.’’ We must 
have a love for fact and truth irrespective as to whether 
or not it agrees with our already formed ideas and no- 
tions. We must be willing, if we are to be discoverers 
of truth, to throw overboard whatever theory we have 
previously held if further light shows it to be in error. 
And it is just such an attitude of mind that we need and 
must have if we are to arrive at the truth concerning the 
doctrine of future retribution. It is said of Kats ED 
Chatteris that, when dying, he said: ‘‘I will give one} \, 
hundred thousand dollars to any man who will prove to 
me that there is no hell.’? ~~ 

It is undoubtedly true that the language describing 
future retribution is metaphorical and figurative; but 
that is also true with regard to the Biblical descriptions 
of heaven. Figurative language stands for something; it 
represents stern reality even though couched in symbolie 
terms and parabolic form. Nor should we forget that 
according to the law of language the reality is always 
more intense than the figure describing it. These figures 
of speech stand for startling facts; they are emblems of 
a terrific reality. Just as in the case of heaven the 
figures of speech represent the most. wonderful and ele- 
gant beauty and eternal bliss, so these descriptions of 
future retribution must stand. as representing the most 
awful, unutterable suffering: the worm representing, 
perhaps, the accusing conscience, and the fire that is 
never quenched, physical suffering, insatiable desire. So 
the call to Dives to remember may set forth the tortures 
of the soul for neglect, for time and opportunity misspent 
es now beyond recall. Thus hell has been described | 

“Truth seen too late.?? Let us not be misled: the | 4 
iia will exceed, not fall short of the metaphor, f 


162 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


It must be conceded, also, in the discussion of this 
subject, that in the final analysis the appeal for decision 
must be the Bible. The proof is, in the main and in the 
ultimate, objective—it is outside ourselves. This as- 
sumes the integrity of the sacred Scriptures and their 
final authority in matters of faith and doctrine. This 
must be assumed here, for we have not space, neither is 
it the place, to discuss the authority of the Scriptures. 

There are certain things, relative to future retribution, 
- that the Bible is very clear and explicit about. Let us 
look at these things for a moment: 

It is certain that no argument as to the love and power 
of God to save to the uttermost, however plausible and 
eloquent, can cancel the great fact of the free agency of 
man, or the clear, plain utterances made by our loving 
Lord as to the destiny of the impenitently wicked. The 
love and justice of God are not incompatible terms. 
Justice is love in tears. The same God is both loving 
and just. 

It is certain, too, from the teaching of the Scriptures 
that God is not too good to punish sinners. Yet we hear 
statements to this effect quite frequently. How one can | 
make such statement in the face of the explicit teaching 
of the Bible to the contrary is difficult to understand. 
One has but to read the words of Jude” and Peter” 
their epistles to see how such a statement is confuted. 
In these epistles certain persons, cities, and events are 
held up as specimen warnings, ensamples, examples ”™ 
to those who should hereafter live ungodly lives and yet 
think they will escape the punishment due to such man- 
ner of living. If God spared not the angels, Sodom 


* Jude I 2 Pet: 2. 
"> Pet, 2: 6; Jude 7; Rom. 9: 209. 


FUTURE RETRIBUTION 163 


and Gomorrah, the old world which perished in the flood, 
and the sons of Core, what reason have we for saying 
that God is too good to punish sin? Was He too good 
to destroy the old world because of its sin? Why should 
it be considered impossible that He should do the same 
thing with this present evil world?” He spared not 
angels when they sinned; why should He spare men who 
do likewise? The fact that He has done so once, is evi- 
dence that He will do so again; indeed the Bible 
very clearly declares that He will do so. Any view 
held to the contrary is the result, Peter says, of 
willing ignorance;” it is the result of a not wanting 
to believe; it is a will to disbelieve. There is such 
a thing even as there is, as the late Professor James said: 
‘*A will to believe.’? Much depends upon one’s attitude 
of mind. The facts of God’s dealings as we know them 
in history and providence are all in favour of future 
retribution; the Bible is unequivocally clear about it; 
prejudice alone denies it. 

A man once wrote Voltaire as follows: ‘‘I have suc-| _ 
ceeded in getting rid of the idea of hell.’? ‘‘ Allow me! a 
to congratulate you,’’ Voltaire replied; ‘‘I am very far. 
from it.’? Men say: ‘‘God is a loving Father.’’ True, ' 
but He is not a weak, effeminate, foolish Father. He is 
not like David who let his son Ammon go unpunished 
although incorrigibly bad, and who let Absalom go with- 
out disciplinary reproof, rebuke, punishment, with the | 
result that Absalom became a murderer and Ammon an | 
adulterer. David was a good king but a weak father. | 
Is God like that? Assuredly not. Did not God rebuke | 
Eli because he had not disciplined his children?™ God 


“2 Pet. 3:5-0. 72) Ret 33 35, 
#1 Sam, 2: 12-17, 27-36: 4: 12-18. 


ty 


~ 


164 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


is a Father, but He is not ‘‘a daddy.’’ There is the Dead 
Sea. Nothing can live in it. It is ‘‘an ugly scar on 
the earth’s surface.’? There it has stood for all these 
centuries. It is not palatable, nor can one swim in it. 
IT can bear witness to the truth of both things from per- 
sonal experience. For all these centuries it has stood as 
a warning illustration that God will punish sin and 
wrong-doing even as He punished Sodom and Gomorrah. 

‘So God’s laws are mercifully inexorable because they 


‘are merciless. So is it with Nature’s laws. Fire will 
burn your hand if thrust into it. So it is merciful (in 


that it teaches you that a penalty is attached to dis- 


_ obedience) because it is so merciless [gives sure punish- 


Sr ae eal 


#3 


‘ment]. How different man’s laws! They are loose. 


‘There is no teeth in them.’ And so it comes to pass 
that failure to uphold the law and punish those who defy 
and break it leads to more thefts, murders, ete. So the 
lawlessness of a king, president, governor, mayor, sena- 
tor, representative, alderman or any other public official © 


‘leads to the lawlessness of the nation.’’ God ts a loving 
Father; He is also a ‘‘consuming fire. 


99 25 


Let us not 
imagine that we shall escape the judgment of a just and 
loving Father if we continue to be gainsaying, disobe- 
dient and wicked children. Is the United States too 
good to punish wrong-doing? Is she not considered weak 
when she does not do so? What becomes of the child 
whose father is too good to chastise it for wrong-doing? 
We know, for we see so many sad illustrations of such 
undisciplined children. God is a Moral Governor as well 
as a Father, and His creative love does not blind Him 
to the wilful deliberate wickedness of those who should 
render Him a loving obedience and service. God was a 


* Heb. 12: 20. 


FUTURE RETRIBUTION 165 


Father to Israel, yet they did not escape His wrath in 
the wilderness.” Nor shall we escape if we, like them, 
turn ourselves away from God and His holy will.” 

That Jesus clearly taught future retribution there can 
be no doubt if we accept the record of the Gospels. The 
appeal of Jesus again and again to fear is staggering. 
Time after time, seven times indeed, He refers to the 
weeping, and the wailing, and the gnashing of teeth;* 
three times to the fire that shall never be quenched; ” 
thrice to the worm that dieth not;* twice to torment or 
anguish.” He mentions the fact that the Rich Man in 
hades was called upon to remember ™ while there. What 
an awful thing it must be to have to do that in hades! 
It is bad enough to have to remember in this life, where 
memory is imperfect; but think of what it must be to 
have to recall and remember in that other world where 
the human handicaps of memory are removed! ‘There, 
memory is a haunting ghost. What a stern reality! 

Again and again Jesus makes use of the word 
“‘eternal’’ or ‘‘everlasting’’ in His description of future 
retribution of the wicked, even as He does in describing 
the bliss of the righteous: ‘‘ And these shall go away into 
everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlast- 
ing life.’’® There has been considerable discussion, 
especially among those who are antagonistic to the doc- 
trine of future retribution of the wicked, as to the mean- 
ing of the word ‘‘everlasting.’’ They would remind us 
that the Greek word does not mean ‘‘endless’’ or ‘‘ with- 
out end’’ but ‘‘age-long,’’ thus indicating that there 
might be an end to the retribution of the wicked. Dare 


* + Cor. 10: 6-13. * Heb. 2: 3: 12:25. 

“Matt, 8: 12: 133.42, 50; 22:.133 24:51; 25:30: [Luke 19728. 

* Mark 9:44, 45, 48.  ™Luke 16:23, 28, * Tuke 16: 25. 
* Matt. 25: 41, 46. 


166 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


one say that he becomes a little suspicious when a man 
begins thus to play with the meaning of Greek words; 
that there may be an attempt to change the vocabulary 
because there has been a change in views? It is very 
often the case—of that we are very sure. Perhaps the 
man who makes so much of the meaning of Greek words 
understands very little about them. That, too, is too 
often the case with those who refer most to it. And 
then, of what advantage is it to refer the English reader 
to the Greek word? He does not understand it, nor can 
he say whether or not you are telling the truth about 
the Greek word and its meaning. How can he be ex- 
pected to tell whether you are right or wrong in your 
definition of the word in question? He cannot. I am 
more and more convinced that the Spirit of God filling 
a man’s soul can teach him more of the divine will than 
a mere study of Greek words. 

And I am not belittling the study of Greek when I 
say that. A knowledge of Greek has its advantages; it 
has its disadvantages, too. So far as I understand the 
Standard Versions of the Bible, to-day, they come pretty 
near giving an accurate translation of the divine mean- 
ing of the Word of God. He must be a profound scholar 
in Greek to beat the translation given us by the Ameri- 
can Standard Version, or even the King James Version. 
This would be equally true of the English Revised Ver- 
sion. What interests me most in this connection is, what 
impression does the use of the word ‘‘eternal’’ and 
‘‘everlasting’’ make on the mind of the English reader? 
Ts it not that the misery and punishment of the wicked 
is unending? And TI do not believe that the Son of God 
intended to scare men with a lie. Do you? 

Our Lord’s words: ‘‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into 


FUTURE RETRIBUTION 167 


everlasting fire’? . . . ‘‘These shall go away into 
everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life 
eternal,’’ * seem to us to most clearly and unequivocally 
teach that eternal punishment is contrasted with eternal 
life, and that if there is to be an end to the woe of the 
wicked there is also to be an end to the bliss of the 
righteous. Is not that a fair conclusion? Candidly 
now, is it not? Taking the words as they stand, what 
other conclusion can one honestly come to with reference 
to the matter? In one of the songs of Revelation we find 
these words: ‘‘ And they fall down and worship him that 
liveth for ever and ever.’?™ Here you have the same 
expression that describes the retribution of the wicked. 
If there may be an end to that retribution then there may 
be an end to God. But the life of God is without end. 
Why not then the retribution of the wicked? You tell 
me the idea is abhorrent. Perhaps it is, in our human 
way of looking at it. This is not denied for the moment. 
But are we to allow our feelings to decide the interpre- 
tation of the Word of God? If then the woe of the wicked 
is to last as long as the life of God and the joy of the 
righteous in what other way, think you, could God have 
impressed upon us that fact save by the use of the words 
‘‘eternal’’ and ‘‘everlasting’’? 

It has been said that the adjective ‘‘eternal’’ occurs 
about seventy times in the New Testament. It is, of 
course, very important that we ascertain, in each par- 
ticular instance, just what it signifies. Does it mean, 
for example, that which belongs to a certain age or ages, 
as in the expression ‘‘the life of the ages,’’” and ‘‘the 
power of the age to come’’?™” Or does it refer to un- 


8 Matt. 25:41, 46. * Rev. 4:9. 
® Matt. 19: 16. *° Heb. 6: 5. 


168 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


limited duration and ‘‘without end’’? There can be no 
doubt that the word does characterize and qualify a life 
and experience peculiar to a future age; “ but there can 
be absolutely no question that it also, and perhaps more 
frequently, expresses unlimited, unending duration. So 
Weymouth in referring to Matthew 18:8: ‘‘cast into 
eternal fire;’’ says that ‘‘the word does mean ‘everlast- 
ing’ in the strongest, unlimited sense of that word,’’ and 
“‘that it cannot reasonably be doubted.’’ 

There is also the “expression: ‘‘unto the ages of the 
ages,’’ or ‘‘for ever and ever,’’* to be considered in this 
eonnection. This term means ages tumbling on ages, 
ages succeeding ages, and is an expression surely indi- 
eating unlimited duration. And this expression is used 
to describe the duration of future retribution, and the 
dominion of Christ.* 

Certain arguments against the doctrine of future 
retribution should here be considered, even though 
briefly. We have not space for any lengthy discussion. 
We would simply indicate what they are and say a brief 
word in reply. 

In the first place there are those who maintain that 
the doctrine of future retribution is inconsistent with the 
power of God. Their argument, briefly, is as follows: 
To hold the doctrine of eternal punishment predicates 
the eternal existence of sin and the sinner; also an un- 
ending struggle between righteousness and unrighteous- 
ness, Satan and God; a struggle which, apparently, God 
is not able to bring to an end, a fact, which, if true, 
would seem to indicate that God is not omnipotent, not 
in this matter at least. But, it is maintained, our belief in 
God is that He is omnipotent. What should be said in 


See Matt. 7:14; 18:8, 9. *® Rev, 14: 113 cf. §: 1% 


FUTURE RETRIBUTION 169 


reply? We adhere to the omnipotence of God. We ask 
why should the unendingness of sin be any more an argu- 
ment against the omnipotence of God than the beginning 
or continuance of sin since the creation? Why could, 
or did not, the power of God prevent its entrance into 
the world? Why did not God forbid sin having a be- 
ginning? The mystery regarding sin, it seems to us, is 
not that it should have no end but that it should have 
had a beginning. Did not God know when He made 
man a free agent that man would abuse that free agency 
and bring shame and disaster upon himself and his 
posterity? Why, then, we may ask, did He make man? 
Here is mystery, indeed. The answer to the question 
we cannot, perhaps, now know. Some day, it may be, 
we shall understand it; perhaps in that great hereafter 
when the mysteries of life will all be made plain, per- 
haps then we shall understand. But, at the present, we 
see no more inconsistency in the unendingness of sin 
and the sinner than that sin and the sinner should have 
had a beginning. We are in the presence of mystery. 
Let us admit it. 

There are those who hold that the doctrine of future 
retribution 7s inconsistent with the justice of God. It is 
maintained that eternal punishment is out of all propor- 
tion to the guilt of the offence committed. Man’s life 
on the earth, it is said, is short at best. Why then pun- 
ish finite sin with infinite woe? In reply it may be said 
that we have very little conception of the real nature of 
sin, its guilt and enormity. Because we are sinners by 
nature and choice it is difficult to understand how sin 
must appear to an absolutely holy God. Until we come 
to see sin as God sees it we shall be unable to attribute 
injustice to God for the penalty He attaches to the sin of 


170 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


the impenitently wicked, or that there is disparity be- 
tween the offence and its. punishment. 

But is a man’s sin confined to his own lifetime? If 
you drop a stone into the ocean it will make a circle on 
the water, then another circle, and still another, and so 
on ad infimtum, stopping, who can tell where? May it 
not be so with a man’s sin? ‘‘No man liveth to him- 
self.’’® It is said of Abel and the good life he lived 
that ‘‘he being dead, yet speaketh.’’“” Why may not 
that be true also of. the influence of a bad man’s life? 
It is said that the crocodile lays her eggs in the sand and 
then goes away and leaves them to hatch without her. 
Her presence is not necessary for further propagation. 
So is it with a man and his sin. There is an employer, 
with young men and women under him learning the 
business. They hear him lie, see him practice deceit, 
and withal succeed and get promotion. They emulate 
his vices for they consider that they lead to success. 
They go on continuing to practice them. That employer 
may have come to his senses and renounced his evil ways, 
but those young men and women who have gone out 
from under his influence to practice the things they saw 
and heard him do may not have renounced the evil prac- 
tices. What can that man do to stop his sin and its 
influence? Practically nothing. His sin is continuing 
even without his presence. 

Jesus spoke of such a thing as an eternal sin.” We 
have already seen in our discussion of the intermediate 
state that death does not change a man’s bent and char- 
acter; that what his inclinations are here, that they will 
be in the hereafter, only more so.” Why then, if a man’s 


Rom. 14:7. * Heb. 11: 4. 
* Mark 3:29. _ ®@ Rev. 22:10, II. 


FUTURE RETRIBUTION 171 


bent has been towards evil and sin, and he has loved and 
chosen it in preference to righteousness, why, we ask, 
may not that attitude continue forever? Granted the 
eternal existence of sin, why should there not be eternal 
punishment for sin? Men have before them here and 
now the possibility of eternal life and bliss if they wish 
it. No injustice can be attributed to God, then, because 
a man, in spite of the loving wooing of Christ and His 
Gospel, prefers to choose death and woe?*  , 

Nor should we forget in this connection much depends 
upon the character of the persons sinned against as to 
the nature and character of the punishment meted out. 
Guilt, even in this life and among men, is proportioned 
in accordance with the position of the person sinned 
against. A crime committed against a fellow man is 
not so heinous as if committed against one’s parents, is 
it? Is a crime against a ruler not more grievous than 
one committed against an ordinary citizen? and is not 
the punishment meted out different? What shall we say 
then as to sin committed against Christ and God?“ 

Once again, there are those who maintain that the 
doctrine of future retribution 7s inconsistent with the 
mercy of God. The thought is inconceivable, we are told, 
that God should punish man unless it be for his reform 
and improvement. ‘To such the idea of punishment as a 
punitive measure merely seems out of the question. But 
it may be asked in reply: Does not God permit much 
suffering here in this world and how much of it is un- 
deserved by those suffering? Why then is it any more 
inconsistent with the mercy of God that such undeserved 
suffering should be permitted here than that deserved 


$ Joshua 242153 Matt. 7:13, 14; John 5: 40. 
“Cf. John 16:9, Io. 


172 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


suffering should be permitted to exist in the next world 
where wicked men ought to be punished? Our observa- 
tion and experience tell us that there are wicked men in 
this life who deserve punishment and who are not pun- 
ished here; we feel they ought to be punished somewhere. 

But why should we say that God inflicts punishment 
on the wicked and is therefore unmerciful in thus inflict- 
ing? Why not say rather that man brings the punish- 
ment upon himself, that he creates his own retribution? ® 
God has done everything possible,“ in harmony with 
man’s free agency, to prevent his ruin. And after all 
future retribution is not so much punishment for what 
they have done as it is for being what they have become 
It is much with them as it is with the drunkard: habitual 
drunkenness is the result of continual yielding to drink. 
May it not be that the worm that dieth not may signify 
the remorse that comes over the lost as they contemplate 
what they might have been and become and how they 
have thus unfitted themselves for heaven ? 

If it be true that this doctrine is at variance with the 
mercy of God how comes it that Jesus taught it? Did 
not Jesus understand and represent the mercy of God 
as no one else ever did? The fact then that He taught 
this doctrine is proof sufficient that it is not incompati- 
ble with the merey of God. This should be a sufficient 
~ answer to the objection. 

It is further said, though perhaps not as seriously as 
in regard to the other objections just mentioned, that it 
would destroy the happiness of the righteous for them 
to know that some of their fellows, perhaps their own 
loved ones, were thus suffering beyond hope of reprieve. 
We have dealt to some extent with this phase of the 


©2 Pet. 2:1. Wiss 6 a 


FUTURE RETRIBUTION 173 


question on a preceding page, and it is not necessary to 
repeat what was there said. The reader may turn to it 
and review it.” This brief word may be added, how- 
ever: Of course it is admitted that we shall have memory 
in heaven. Were not this the case we could hardly be 
real human beings. The songs we sing there will have 
in them the sentiment of Calvary and as we sing our 
minds will unquestionably go back to that green hill, 
‘‘where our dear Lord was crucified.’’ Yet, while ad- 
mitting all this, we must not forget that memory at best 
is but partial. It would be impossible for us to recall 
and remember all the friends we have met and known in 
life, nor can it be said that we really miss them all. 
Then, too, there are friends who by reason of their con- 
duct, have changed our feelings towards them and have 
practically passed out of our life. Yea, I think we may 
go one step further, and say that it is quite conceivable, 
possible, probable for our feelings towards a most inti- 
mate relative and loved one to so change that instead of 
our being happy where they are their very presence 
brings misery to us. We actually see this to be the ease 
at times when the feelings between husband and wife, 
parent and child have, for some serious reason, under- 
gone change. Now, seeing all this is true in our rela- 
tions here on the earth, why may not the same thing be 
true with reference to our relations in that other world? 
It is quite possible that our friend’s and relative’s hatred 
of God may be so distasteful to us as to make it quite 
possible that we shall not miss them. We will there see 
not merely a tear in the eye of the sinner; we shall see 
also hatred of God in his heart. Then, too, is it not pos- 
sible that we shall be so taken up with the things that 


“Pp. 90-06. 


174 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


concern God that we shall not miss all else, nor be able 
to recall the fate of those who have rejected the love and 
merey of God as offered in Christ? Of course, in the 
last analysis, we have no right to make our happiness 
in heaven dependent upon any earthly conditions what- 
soever. By such reasoning we “‘do err, not knowing the 
Scriptures nor the power of God.’’® 


CERTAIN VIEWS OF FUTURE RETRIBUTION CONTRADICTORY 
. TO SCRIPTURE 

The Annihilation Theory. There are those who main- 
tain that at death the wicked are blotted out of exist- 
ence. Some annihilationists, however, allow for a period 
of punishment, long or short as the case may be, after 
which the wicked are blotted out of existence for ever- 
more. The ungodly cease to be; they are as a dream 
as when one awaketh and behold they are not. 

This view we think is based on a misconception of the 
meaning of certain Scriptural terms which describe the 
future retribution of the wicked, such, for example, as 
‘*death,’? ‘‘The wages of sin is death,’’® ‘‘the second 
death,’’” ‘‘death through sin,’’” and ‘‘so death passed 
upon all men.’’” The annihilationist maintains that 
death in these, and other places where the punishment 
of the wicked is referred to, means extinction of being, 
a ceasing to be. But a careful examination into the 
etymology and context of the passages containing such 
terms, together with the Scripture usage, will, we feel 
sure, show that such a construction cannot be placed on 
death. Eternal life, for instance, means, in its Scripture 
usage, more than existence; it refers to a quality of 
existence, namely blessedness, a life lived in bliss with 


@ Matt. 22:20. “Rom. 6:23. “Rev. 20:14. ™Rom. 5:12. 


FUTURE RETRIBUTION 175 


God. It does not mean, certainly not exclusively, and 
perhaps not even primarily, to exist throughout eternity 
merely. ‘That idea is, of course, in the word, but the 
reference is primarily to quality of years rather than to 
their quantity. So is it with the phrase ‘‘eternal death.’’ 
Because the wicked do not have eternal life, it by no 
means follows that they cease to exist. Indeed the con- 
trary is the case, for ‘‘once born a soul dies not; ’tis an 
eternal thing.’’ Death, as here used, describes the eter- 
nal state of the soul separated from God, light, love, 
bliss. 

It was said to Adam: ‘‘In the day that thou eatest 
thereof, thou shalt surely die.’?” Surely death in this 
instance did not mean cessation of being, for Adam lived 
hundreds of years after this sentence was passed upon 
him. Nor can it be said of Jesus that when He died 
upon the Cross that He ceased to exist. Far from it, 
for He said: ‘‘I am he that liveth; I became dead, and, 
behold, I am alive for evermore.’’™ It is said of one 
whose life is devoted to pleasure-seeking: ‘‘She that 
liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.’?™ Surely 
death in this instance cannot mean ceasing to be. 

So is it with the word ‘‘lost’’?” when applied to the 
wicked. It refers to condition, not annihilation. Nor ean 
it be said that, in a single instance, the word ‘‘destrue- 
tion,’’ as used in the Scripture, is, necessarily, equivalent 
to annihilation or extinction. Christ, by His death on the 
Cross, is said to have destroyed Satan.” That surely 
does not mean that He annihilated the devil, for the 
devil still lives and is quite active among the sons of 
men. What it does mean is that Jesus made the power 


@ Gen. 2:17; cf. Rom. 5: 12. % Rev. 1:17, 18. 
“> Tim. 5:6. *® Tuke 19: 10. % Heb. 2: 14. 


176 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


of Satan over death of none effect, that He spoiled the 
purposes of the devil and made them inoperative so far 
as the saints were concerned. The idea of extinction of 
being is not to be found in this word. 

It is true that certain Old Testament passages seem 
to teach extinction, such as—‘‘ They shall consume as the 
fat of lambs;’’™ or ‘‘It shall leave them neither root 
nor branch.’’?® But these, and other passages like them, 
will be found, when viewed in the light of their context, 
to refer to the place of the wicked on the earth,” and not 
to their state in the other life. It is, therefore, when 
we think of death as being spiritual separation from God 
that all becomes clear. 

Nor does that other phase of annihilationism which 
holds that after a period of punishment the wicked are 
blotted out of existence, find any Scriptural ground. 
Indeed, it seems to us as though such a thought is 
harder to believe of God than the other. Can you con- 
ceive of God raising the wicked from the dead for a brief 
period of punishment and then blotting them out of ex- 
istence? Furthermore: such a view would seem to us 
to do violence to the justice of God, for to blot out all 
the wicked would be to fail to recognize what we have 
seen to be a fundamental principle of the Judgment— 
that each man will be rewarded according to what his 
works have been. The annihilationist would treat all 
the wicked alike. This is unfair and inconsistent with 
the Scripture which teaches that some are punished with 
many stripes, and others with few.” There are degrees 
of punishment for the wicked as there are of reward for 
the righteous. This brief period of existence, preceding 


* Psa.//37 5.20. ® Mal. 4:1. 
Psa. 37:9, 10, 20, 34, 36. © Luke 12: 47, 48. 


FUTURE RETRIBUTION 177 


their blotting out forever, does not meet the facts in the 
ease. The doctrine of annihilation would do away with 
this righteous standard of judgment, therefore it cannot 
be true. 

Man is more than a material being; he is intensely 
spiritual. Nor can the spirit cease to exist for it is the 
essence of God; but the annihilationist would reduce 
man to the level of the material. 

Nor should it be overlooked in this connection that the 
belief of the Christian Church for some nineteen cen- 
turies has been against the annihilation view; indeed, 
‘‘this doctrine was not maintained by any considerable | 
body of men until the nineteenth century.’’ It is not 
unfair, we think, to say that the doctrine is of pagan 
origin. The people of India as well as many savage 
tribes, centuries ago, believed and taught that although 
the wicked lived hereafter, their existence would be brief, 
and that the surviving spirit would die again once for 
all and be devoured of the gods. They taught that some 
more highly favoured souls might be permitted to live 
a little longer time, but the masses would evaporate for- 
ever. ‘‘When a man has once died, he will, naturally, 
keep on living, barring the annihilation which will be 
his lot if he has deeply offended the gods; these, instead 
of living thereafter, sink into the ‘lap of destruction,’ 
otherwise called ‘black darkness,’ ‘the hole that has no 
hold,’ ‘the pit below’ where life evaporates or ceases al- 
together.’’ The men who ‘‘get immortality’? are those 
‘who please the gods.’’ The way to please the gods is 
to sacrifice to them, to offer ‘‘the sacrificial gifts of the 
gods.’’ Neither reward nor punishment were regarded 
among such savage tribes as being everlasting; ‘‘even 
the gods are of indefinite duration.’’ 


178 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


There is then what may be called the doctrine of 
‘Universalism. According to this belief, everybody— 
' some professing it include even the devil—will be saved. 
Salvation is to be extended to the devil and his angels 
and they will accept it, and, ultimately, everybody will 
be in harmony with God. This, it seems to us, is a 
(dangerous doctrine. A chaplain in an Ohio penitenti- 
‘ary is reported to have said: ‘‘I consider Universalism 
‘the worst form of infidelity. Nearly all of our prisoners 
have been affected with it during their career of vice. 
'Nothing else, they say, could have held them up in crime 
at the risk of life they took at every step but the thought 
which they had tried to entertain, that after death they 
would eventually go to heaven.’’ A prominent judge 
once said: ‘‘ Were all ministers to preach the doctrine of 
universal salvation there would soon be a hell in this 
world, if not in the next.’’ 

These testimonies, of course, must be taken as the 
opinions of individual men, but, in our judgment, they 
are worth quoting as fairly representing the tendency 
of this particular doctrine. Naturally, we say, that if 
this doctrine is taught in the Scriptures we all should 
welcome it, for it has this in its favour—it is a desirable 
doctrine and for which we could all devoutly wish. It 
does seem to us, however, that such a belief does away 
with the seriousness of preaching. If there be no dan- 
ger there is no need of sounding the alarm.. Men do 
not ring the fire-bell if there be no fire, nor do they put 
out the life-boat if there be no wreck. 

I read sometime ago of a Universalist preacher who 
was invited to supply a pulpit for a Sunday. He 
preached eloquently and declared that there was no such 
thing as future retribution ; that the loving Father would 


FUTURE RETRIBUTION 179 


gather us all to be with Himself even though we had been 
disobedient children here on the earth. At the close of 

the service he intimated to the committee that he would 
welcome a return invitation another Sunday. In response; 

to his request, one of the committee said: ‘‘My friend, : 

if what you say is true, we do not need you to preach |” 
to us. If what you say is untrue, we do not want you’ 

to preach tous. If your doctrine is true we do not need | 
you; if it is false, we do not want you.’’ So there it! 
rested. 

A eareful review of the Scriptures on which the Uni- 
versalist would base his belief does not, in our judgment, 
justify his conclusion. Let us look at them for a mo- 
ment. Reference is made to the expression ‘‘the restitu- 
tion of all things’’” as indicating Universalism. But 
does it? View the passage in its setting and relation 
to the Old Testament to which it here refers, and it will 
be clearly seen that the passage refers to certain prom- 
ises and things foretold by the Old Testament prophets. 
No idea of universal salvation can at all be legitimately 
inferred even from this passage. 

The reference to the great contrast between Adam 
and Christ, as made by Paul in his wonderful Roman 
epistle ® should not be made to teach universal salvation 
for its main thought is but to show that we regain in 
Christ what we lost in Adam. We should not forget, 
however, that to be in Christ implies an act of faith and 
receiving on the part of those who participate in Christ’s 
death, and that those who refuse to enter into that re- 
lationship of faith remain under the condemnation™ of 
which this chapter speaks and which is the heritage, 


peices: 94-204!) < @ Acts 5: 12-21. 
©” Acts §+20 


180 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


naturally, of the posterity of Adam unless in Christ by, 
faith. 

Nor does that famous passage in First Corinthians— 
‘‘For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be 
made alive’’“°—teach universal salvation. A careful 
reading of the chapter reveals the incontrovertible fact 
that Paul is speaking of the resurrection of the body. He 
is not in the slightest way referring to the salvation of 
the soul as we understand that term to refer to salva- 
tion here. What he does say is this: That as in Adam 
all men die (physically), so, in Christ, shall all men be 
raised (physically). It is perfectly true, as is said in 
another place in this ehapter of Paul’s letter to the 
Corinthians, that the day will come when God shall be 
‘fall in all,’’? and ‘‘all things shall be made subject to 
him;’’® but subjection is not salvation; it is a com- 
pulsory submission because of the mighty power of God. 
And is it not just at this point where Universalism falls 
down—its inability to reconcile the sovereignty of God 
with the free will of man? The doctrine of future 
retribution may have many difficulties—and it has—but 
they are trifling as compared with the difficulties created 
by doctrine which contradicts it. 

That God wills to have all men saved is a fact we all 
admit.“ For this noble end He gave His Son to die 
upon the Cross. For this He sent His prophets to plead 
with men. ‘‘Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord 
God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but 
rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. 
Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye 
die, O house of Israel???” But there is a vast difference 


v & GOs; 184 22: *1 Cor. 15: 24-28, 
“1; Tim. 2: 3-4. “Ezek. 33: 11. 


FUTURE RETRIBUTION 181 


between what God wills, in the sense of desires, and what 
He decrees, in the sense of fiat. The Divine wishes may 
not be carried out because of the wilfulness of man;“ but 
the Divine decree will be carried out to its consummation, 
irrespective of the malice, will or opposition of man, 
demon or Satan. That God desires the salvation of all 
men is true; all men are not saved because some will not 
yield themselves to the Divine wish and will;” nor will 
God interfere with man’s free agency and force a sur- 
render. It is in this sense that such passages as speak 
of the will of God expressing itself in the salvation of 
all men are to be understood. 

To say that all men, eventually, will be saved, is to 
directly contradict the teachings of Jesus: ‘‘He that be- 
lieveth not shall be damned;’’” ‘‘And these shall go 
away into everlasting punishment ;’’” ‘‘ Depart from me, 
ye cursed, into everlasting fire;’’” ‘‘Gather the tares 
into bundles and east them into the fire. As therefore 
the tares are gathered up and burned with fire; so shall 
it be in the end of the world. The Son of Man shall 
send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his 
kingdom all things that cause stumbling and them that 
do iniquity ; and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; 
there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.’’® 
‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; and 
he that believeth not shall be damned.’’” 

It is sometimes argued that the words: ‘‘ Every sacri- 
fice shall be salted with salt’? implies that there will be 
final restoration, for salt, it is maintained, is a symbol 
of purification. But is salt not also, and perhaps more 


pe Ct, 2 Pet. 3:1-9 “John 5: 40:. Matt: 23:37: Psalm 110: 3. 
® Mark 16: 16. % Matt. 25: 46. ? Matt. 25: 41. 
® Matt. 13: 40-42. ™ Mark 9: 40. 


182 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


so, a symbol of preservation? for the same passages that 
speak of the ‘‘worm that dieth not and the fire that is 
never quenched’’ refer also in the same connection to the 
same words: ‘‘Every sacrifice shall be salted with 
salt’’?“ If Divine chastening proves ineffective and 
fails to purify here, even though men are surrounded by 
the helpful influences of grace, how can we expect it to 
be effective there where such influences do not exist? 
If divine love has been ineffectual here, even through 
chastisement, why should we expect it to be different 
there? 

_y On one occasion Jesus said, ‘‘It were good for that 

i \ man if he had never been born.’’” How can we explain 
this expression if future punishment leads to restora- 
tion? The existence of Judas (concerning whom these 
words were spoken) would have been a blessing if, 
eventually, it led to eternal bliss. Yet Jesus said: ‘‘It 
were good for that man if he had never been born.’’ 
There is such a thing as an eternal sin“ which hath no 
forgiveness; so the existence of the sinner who is never 
forgiven must forever exclude him from heaven. An 
eternal sin is clearly a sin which remains unpardoned. 
It is a sin of the ages. It remains, forever, unabsolved, 
unpardoned. 

There is still one more objection to the doctrine of 
future retribution that we should like to deal with here. 
It is that of the unconsciousness of the soul; the sleep 
of the soul, particularly between death and the resurrec- 
tion; a sleep which results, finally, in the case of the 
wicked, in annihilation of being. But, again, a careful 
review of the passages adduced to prove this teaching 
shows that no such construction can be placed upon 


™ Matt. 26: 24. Mark 3: 20. 


FUTURE RETRIBUTION 183 


them when they are examined grammatically and in the 
light of their context. The soul never sleeps. Nowhere 
does the Bible say it does. The Scriptures refer sleep 
to the body, not to the soul: ‘‘And many of the bodies 
of the saints which slept, arose.’?’?” The bodies, mark 
you, not the souls. ‘‘And many of the sleepers in the 
dust shall awake.’?’“ The soul does not sleep in the 
dust; the body does. Surely Paul’s expressed desire to 
‘depart and be with Christ, which is very far better,’’” 
can scarcely be harmonized with an unconscious state. 
Would unconsciousness be comparable with the conscious 
presence of Christ such as Paul enjoyed even down here 
on the earth? For with Paul, to live was Christ.” Fur- 
ther, if the souls of the departed are unconscious how ' 
do we harmonize that with the fact that ‘‘the unrighteous 
are guarded for punishment unto the day of judgment.’’® 
Were Lazarus and Dives and Abraham, as pictured by 
our Lord in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus, 
unconscious?” We think not. The mere absence of the 
body does not produce unconsciousness. The rich man 
in hades was called upon to remember even while his 
body was buried in the grave. The angels do not have 
bodies such as we have, and yet they are conscious be- 
ings, are they not? Here again is a theory that has 
more difficulties than the plain Bible doctrine of future 
retribution. Moses and Elijah, after having been dead 
from ten to fifteen centuries, are on the mount with 
Jesus and the disciples, conscious and cognizant of what 
is to transpire at Jerusalem and at Calvary.® 

The statement in Ecclesiastes: ‘‘that the dead know 


™ Matt. 27: 52. 53. "Dan: 1221, 2 
Ve] . . 
Phil. 1: 23. Pal) 21 Or eet re ich 
? Luke 16: 19-31. % Luke 9: 30, 31. 


184 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


not anything,’’™ cannot be construed as teaching the un- 
consciousness of the soul at death. Perhaps what the 
writer of that Book had in mind was, that the dead 
know nothing that is transpiring on this earth,” not that 
they were unconscious in the other world. But that 
this expression does not denote unconsciousness is with- 
out doubt clear from its use elsewhere. The same ex- 
pression is used of the soldiers who took sides with 
Absalom against his father David. It is said that they 
went with Absalom ‘‘knowing nothing.’’* Does that 
mean that they were’ unconscious? Certainly not; the 
idea is absurd. What it does mean is that they knew 
not of Absalom’s plot against his father. Again, take 
the use of the word in connection with Jonathan’s sery- 
ant. David was not sure, nor was Jonathan for that 
matter, how Saul felt towards him. Jonathan prom- 
ised to find out and let David know. This was their 
plan: David was to hide in the field. Jonathan was 
to come out into the field, ostensibly to hunt, having 
bow and arrows with him. If, when the boy ran after 
the arrows, Jonathan called out ‘‘They are beyond you,’’ 
then David was to take that as a signal to flee. So 
Jonathan did. And we read that the boy went after 
‘the arrows ‘‘knowing nothing,’’ ‘‘he knew not any- 
thing.’’?” Does that mean that the boy was unconscious? 
No, it simply means that he was not aware of the sign 
existing between Jonathan and David, ‘‘for he knew not 
anything. ’’ 


Eccles. 9: 5. *® Cf. Job 14: 21. 


84 
Mapai ¢ IT. sy Sam. 20: 39. 


x 
THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 


‘ ), YE have now reached the last chapter in our 

study of the Future Life and of our enquiry 

concerning what lies beyond the grave. We 

have considered the final and future retribution of the 

wicked. We shall now dwell upon the future and eternal 
bliss of the righteous. 

Heaven is a most wonderful subject. The word is a 
most elastic and comprehensive one, as used in the Scrip- 
tures. It is used in quite a number of senses and in 
both the singular and plural tenses." Heaven is God’s 
dwelling place;* it is where His throne is;* it is the 
right hand of the Majesty on high.* It is where Christ 
is;° where He now appears in the presence of God for 
us.. From heaven He came,’ to heaven He returned,* 
and it is from heaven that He will again come.’ Angels 
have their dwelling-place in heaven; there are to be 
seen the cherubim and seraphim.” Our loved ones— 
‘“the spirits of just men made perfect’’ and ‘‘the Church 
of the first-born whose names are written in heaven’’ 
—are there.” 

We read also of the heaven where the birds are,* of 
the stars of the heaven,” of the heavens in which dwell 
the principalities and powers.” Sometimes heaven is 

1 Kings 8: 27, etc. *z Kings 8: 30. "Isa, G21: 

*Heb. 1:3; 8:1. ° Acts 8:56; Heb. 1:3. ® Heb. 9: 24. 

* John 3: 13. PActs 1:11. ;° Matt. 24: #3 Acts I: It. 

® Matt. 18: 10; Heb. 12: 22. a. 6: 1-6. 


* Heb. 12: 22, 23. 8 Gen. 1:26; Matt. 8: pat 6: 26. 
4 Mark 13:25. * Eph. 6: 12. 


185 


186 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


called the air, and the sky.“ At times the word is to 
be found in the plural and then again in the singular. 
The Revised Version ofttimes uses the plural where the 
Authorized uses the singular, and vice versa.* Then 
again, the Greek Testament uses the plural in instances 
in which both the Authorized Version and the Revised 
Version uses the singular.” 

Just how many heavens there are we do not know, 
perhaps we shall not be ever able to know while we are 
down here. The Rabbis tell us there are seven heavens. 
Paul declares that-he was caught up to the ‘‘third’’ 
heaven.” What we do know is that God is supreme in 
and over them all, that Jesus passed through the 
heavens” and took His seat at the right hand of the 
majesty on high * there to appear before the face of God,° 
within the veil, in our behalf, and that He is Head over 
all principalities and powers in the heavenlies,* whether 
they be good or bad. 

A distinction is clearly made in the Scriptures be- 
tween ‘‘the heavens’? and the heaven where God’s 
dwelling-place is, that is, heaven itself, within the veil, 
where the very face of God may be seen. A very care- 
ful consideration, therefore, of the context in each in- 
stance is necessary in order to ascertain the correct 
meaning of heaven as used in any particular passage. 

Nor should we confound heaven * with the kingdom of 
heaven ™ and the kingdom of God.” False arguments 
are sometimes built on such confusion. For instance, 
there are those who would have us believe that there 


6 Matt. 8: 20. ™Tuke 12:56; Matt. 16: 3. 

*% Gen. 1:1; Deut. 11:21: Job 20:27; Eph. 1: 10; Col. 1:5. 
* Matt. 6:9; Luke 11:2. '2.Cor! 1272) 1 Heb. 4: 14. 
% Eph.) 1: 20-22. a Ries 8: 30. Matt. 6 ee 

uke 6: 20. 


THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 187 


is no such place as heaven; they tell us that heaven is 
a state or condition of heart and mind. ‘‘Did not Jesus 
tell us that ‘the kingdom of God’ is within you?’’™ they 
ask. But the kingdom of God is not heaven. There 
may be, doubtless is, much in common to them both, but 
there is a difference between them that must be recog- 
nized. And in this connection it may be well to note 
that Jesus did not really say ‘‘The kingdom of God is , 
within you,’’ but ‘‘The kingdom of God is in your 
midst.’’”" He would have them understand that in their 
midst stood the King, and that where the King stood, 
there the kingdom was. It is true that ‘‘the kingdom 
of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy 
Ghost,’’* but the kingdom of God is not heaven, al- 
though peace, righteousness and joy are to be found in 
heaven itself. 

The distinctions we have mentioned here are most 
necessary to observe if we are to understand correctly 
just what is to be the condition of the righteous in that 
eternal state of bliss. Heaven is a broad and compre- 
hensive term and may be a place, or condition, or both, 
as the passage in question may determine. Of this we 
should, however, be clear that there is a vast difference 
between ‘‘the heavens’’—of which there may be many, 
and that heaven of heavens, heaven itself where God 
dwells and where His face is seen. 

The references to the future state of bliss for the 
righteous are scattered throughout the Bible. The last 
two chapters of the Book of Revelation, however, give us 
a most comprehensive account of the final abode of the 
saints. And to these chapters we turn. 

The last two chapters of Revelatton—perhaps we ought 


*®Tuke 17:20, 21. ™See R. V. margin. 78 Rom. 14:17. 


188 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN ? 


to say the Book itself—may be said to give us the only 
detailed account of heaven, of life beyond the veil. We 
do have intimations in Ezekiel, perhaps, but nothing like 
the detail of the Apocalypse. Of course we have the 
story of Jacob’s Ladder,” in the Old Testament, but no 
real vision of heaven connected with it. We have also 
the record of Moses being with God for two periods of 
forty days, but all we know of that visit is that his 
face did shine.” Stephen declare he saw the heaven 
opened and Jesus standing on the right hand of God;* 
but that’s all. Paul was caught up into the third heaven 
and heard and saw many things not lawful to utter,” 
but he did not tell us about the details of paradise. None 
of these told us what they saw. But John is told to 
“‘write the things which thou hast seen and send them to 
the churches.’’* So we are richer in our knowledge of 
heaven because we have the Book of Revelation and par- 
ticularly the last two chapters. What do these chapters 
tell us about the future state of bliss for the redeemed 
of God? 


In the first place they describe a new sphere of exist- 
ence for the saints of God: ‘‘And I saw a new heaven 
and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth 
are passed away; and the sea is no more.’’™ How like 
the prophecy of Isaiah this sounds: ‘‘For behold, I 
create new heavens and a new earth; and the former 
things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. 
The former troubles are forgotten; they are hid from 


mine eyes.’’® ‘‘For as the new heavens and the new 
* Gen. 28: 12-17. *° Exod. 24: 12-18, 
*Acts 7: 56. 82 Cor, 12..%-16 


% Rev. 1: 10, 20. * Rev. 21: 1. * Isa.\05 * to, 


THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 189 


earth which I will make shall remain before me.’’?™ And 
so Peter declares that ‘‘according to his promise, we look 
for a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth 
righteousness.’ ™ 

It seems as though the heavens as well as the earth 
have been affected by sin.* But the curse of sin will be 
removed from both heaven and earth. The day is com- 
ing when the ‘‘heavenlies’’ will be cleared of all the evil 
principalities and powers” which now infest them. No 
more shall these evil forces and deterrent powers harass 
the children of men. Nor shall the heavens rain down 
destruction upon the work of man’s hands. No more 
shall storm, lightning, hurricane, make havoe of man’s 
dwellings. The earth, so cursed by sin and Satan, will 
again resume her Edenic condition. The wilderness 
shall blossom as the rose. Nothing shall hurt or destroy 
in all the holy mount of God. The curse which, by 
reason of sin, has been resting upon Nature will be re- 
moved. No longer will beast and man be hostile to each 
other, for the lion shall lie down with the lamb and a 
little child shall lead them. Briers and thorns shall no 
longer curse the ground: instead of the brier shall come 
up the fir tree. ‘‘Then the eyes of the blind shall be 
opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 
Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue 
of the dumb shall sing; for in the wilderness shall waters 
break out, and streams in the desert. And the mirage 
shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of 
water: in the habitation of jackals where they lay, shall 
be grass with reeds and rushes. And a highway shall 
be there, and a way, and it shall be called The Way of 


™ Isa°66.: 22: Mia Pet 3s 24. 
8 See Heb. 9: 23. ® Eph. 6: 10-12. 


190 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall 
be for the redeemed. . . . No lion shall be there, 
nor any ravenous beast go up thereon; they shall not be 
found there; but the redeemed shall walk there. And 
the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come with 
singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon 
their heads; and they shall obtain gladness and joy, and 
sorrow and sighing shall flee away.’’ ® 


‘¢ And the sea is no more.’’” ‘To the Jew the sea was 
an emblem of unmixed peril. He was by no means a 
seafaring man. The surging of the sea struck terror to 
the Jewish heart. Perhaps John, as he wrote these 
words on the isle of Patmos,” could hear the sea washing 
the sides of that great rocky eminence. Then, too, the 
sea is a symbol of the restlessness and turmoil of men, 
peoples and nations: * ‘‘the seas roaring for fear of the 
things that are coming on men.’’“ Again, and in this 
very Book of Revelation, the sea and waters are symbols 
of those godless nations at whose hands the Jews had 
suffered so much.” John himself was, at the moment of 
his writing these words, a sufferer under the hand of 
Rome. It is from the sea that John sees the great 
beast “ that is to be the terrific enemy of the chosen 
people. Daniel, too, beholds these same enemies coming 
up from the sea or on the shores of the sea.” 

These all have now ‘‘fled away; and no place is found 
for them.’’* The heavens are cleansed of the evil pow- 
ers; they have been folded up as a napkin and laid 
away © for their last sleep. All that molested, despoiled 


y coal tanern: “ Rev. 21:1. @ Rev. 1:9. 
Tea) am sony har! “Luke 21: 25. © Rev. 17: 15. 
“Rey. 1321: St an. v7 te, * Rev. 20: II. 


bafta Lola Paik Poin EG bbe 


THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 191 


and ruined man on the earth has been abolished. The 
restless, feverish anxiety of national calamity has been 
quieted. 


Within that new abode of life for the saints of God— 
the ‘‘new heavens and the new earth’’—there is a new 
sphere of life for the redeemed: ‘‘The holy city, the new 
Jerusalem.’’” ‘‘And I saw the holy city, new Jeru- 
salem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready 
as a bride adorned for her husband. And he carried 
me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and 
showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of 
heaven from God; having the glory of God.’’ 


The final abode of the righteous is here likened to a 
city. Ten times it is so called.” So heaven is a place 
as well as, and even more than, a state of mind and heart. 
We have already referred to the statement of Jesus as to 
the kingdom of heaven being ‘‘within you,’’” and have 
showed that it might, perhaps, better be rendered, ‘‘the 
kingdom of heaven is in your midst.’’ We have seen, 
further, that the kingdom of heaven is not, strictly speak- 
ing, heaven. The kingdom of God is entered by the new 
birth ;” it is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy 
Ghost; but it is to be distinguished from heaven. That 
Christians have even now an earnest of the Spirit,” a 
little bit of heaven in their hearts as certainty that some 
day they will have the full share, there can be no ques- 
tion. But a heavenly state of mind and the final abode 
of the righteous are not one and the same thing. 


° Rev. 21:2, 10, 14-16, 18, 10, 21, 23. *Tuke 17:20, et 
P. Lonty, 3°,°5, * Eph, 1:13, 14; 2 Cor. § 


192 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


It is interesting to note that the story of the Bible is 
a Tale of Two Cities. The first city is that built and 
named by Cain.” It was a civilization without God. Its 
development is seen later in connection with the tower 
of Babel,” and all through the Bible we see its growth 
and characteristic opposition to God. In Revelation it 
is called ‘‘Babylon, the great enemy of God’s cause and 
people;’’” it represents the highest point of civilization 
without God. But Genesis records the story of the build- 
ing of another city_and civilization in which God should 
be honoured and His will done, approximately, if not 
perfectly. Abraham started out ‘‘to seek a city whose 
maker and builder was God.’’" And to some extent 
it was approximated. Jerusalem and Palestine was the 
attempt to have a civilization with God in it. And this 
city of God has never failed entirely from the earth. 
The Chureh of Christ is now seeking to evidence it. 
Some day, as the last two chapters of Revelation show, 
that city will appear in its perfected and finished form 
as the holy city, the New Jerusalem; the city in which 
God dwells with His people. 


The final abode of the righteous is to be a city. The 
race began 1 in a garden; it will find its consummation in 
a city. It has been said that God made the country, 
man the suburbs, and the devil the city. But that is not 
true. Perhaps God’s ideal of life is the city, even as. 
His ideal form of government is not democracy but ab- 
solute monarchy—there will be one King over all in that 
day.” And after all is it not true that the value and 
blessing of a government lies not so much in its form as 


%® Gen. 4: 16-25. 5 Gen. II. 8 Rev. ch 
Heb. 11: 8-10; Gen. 12: 1-4. * Isa. aes 


THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 193 


its nature. Russia is worse off under Soviet rule than 
she was at any time under her Czar’s. 

The Architect and Builder of this city is God.” We 
think of some beautiful cities we have seen which have 
been designed and built by man. What will this Holy 
City be like when we recall that God is the Builder and 
Maker? We have a picture in the Creation story in 
Genesis of the beautiful earth which God prepared ere 
He placed man on it: ‘‘And God saw everything that 
he had made and _ behold it was very good.’?” What 
think you, will be the glory and beauty of that eternal 
city which God has prepared for those who love Him? 
‘Hye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it en- 
tered into the heart of man the things which God hath 
prepared for them that love him.’’“ ‘‘I go to prepare 
a place for you.’’® ‘‘He hath prepared for them a 
city.”’® How paltry the Hanging Gardens of Babylon 
as compared with this Eden of God! 


The name of the city is Jerusalem. That name was as 
music in the ears of a Jew. What city in all the world 
was like unto Jerusalem! ‘‘If I forget thee, O Jern- 
salem, let my right hand forget her skill; let my tongue 
cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not; 
if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.’’“ ‘‘And 
the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, see- 
ing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of 
heart. Then I was very sore afraid, and I said unto 
the king, Let the king live forever; why should not my 
eountenanece be sad, when the city, the place of my fa- 
thers’ sepulchres lieth waste, and the gates thereof are 


® Heb. 11: 10. © Gen. 1: 31. * 1 Cor. 2:7-9. 
@ John 14:3. * Heb. 11: 16. “Psa. 9377 5,6, 


194 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


consumed with fire?’’® In a strange way God has pre- 
served that city and that name even from the days of 
Melchisedek, king of Salem.“ 


But it is to be the New Jerusalem, the holy city, the 
city of truth, the holy mountain, the city prepared as 
a bride adorned for her husband. It is the heavenly 
Jerusalem,” the Jerusalem which is above all.“ The 
capitol city has now been cleansed from her filthiness and 
defilement. The guilt of her sin has been washed away. 
Jerusalem is now the city of righteousness. It comes 
down from heaven and therefore is pure and holy. The 
old city with its awful memories has passed away. The 
new city, ‘‘the city of my God,’’® now appears, and to 
that city is given the name ‘‘Jerusalem.’’ It is not 
called Rome, or London, or New York, or Corinth, or 
Paris, or Constantinople, but Jerusalem, the city of the 
great King, the ‘‘city of my God.’’ These other cities 
which have stood for military power, classic culture and 
philosophy, worldly pomp and fashion have ceased to 
be—‘‘the world passeth away and the fashion thereof, 
but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever.’’” 
That alone abides which has on it the stamp of God, 
religion, Christ, the eternal. 


This new city is described in considerable detail in 
these two chapters of Revelation. There are its walls.” 
They are great and high. That means that the holy city 
is secure and safe from all assaults of any possible foe. 
The righteous shall then have security in all their dwell- 
ings. There will be no state of fear or apprehension. 

*® Neh. 2: 2, 3. ® Gen. 14: 18; ne y a © 


* Heb. 12:22; Rev. 21: 2, 10. ® Gal. 4: 20. 
* Rev. 3: 12. viz John 2: 15-17. 71 John 21: pe 17, 


THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 195 


Mention is made of the gates.” They are built of 
pearl. Angels are the guardians standing before them. 
There are twelve gates: three on each of the four points 
of the compass. Does not this suggest that the redeemed 
from all quarters shall find a place in the new city? And 
there will not be a few saved, either. ‘‘And I saw a 
great multitude which no man could number.’’” Do 
you not see them flocking, crowding through the gates? 
One gate on the North, South, East, and West will not 
suffice for the multitudes that are crowding in; there 
are twelve gates. ‘‘Many shall sit down in the king- 
dom.’’ Only the saved pass through those gates. The 
angels are there to see to that. Only such as have their 
names written in the book of life will be able to give the 
countersign and pass through the gates into the city. 
‘“And there shall in no wise enter into it anything un- 
clean, or he that maketh an abomination or a lie; but 
only they that are written in the Lamb’s book of life.’’” 

The foundations of the city™ are of precious stones. 
There are twelve foundations and on them the names of 
the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The Church of Christ 
is ‘‘built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner- 
stone.’?” The early Church ‘‘continued steadfastly in 
the apostles’ doctrine.’’* The faith which was once for 
all delivered to the saints” is the doctrine that will give 
us the foundation, for that faith in Jesus will provide 
passport for entrance into the city of God. This is a 
very important thing to remember in this day when a 
difference is made between the teachings of Jesus and 


Tr John 21 * t2, 27. 37 John 7: 9. Cie Mate ae ir 
™ Rev. 21: 27. ® Rev. 21: 14, 18. "Eph. 2: 19-20. 
® Acts 2: 42. ” Jude 3. 


196 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


the apostles, and the affirmation made that the writings 
of the apostles are not inspired and authoritative as are 
those of Jesus. The entire written Word of God is 
equally inspired,” and the words of apostle and prophet 
are expressive of the holy will of God even as the teach- 
ings of Jesus. 

Reference is made to the citizens of that holy city. 
They are the saved of the nations.” No unsaved person 
will find any place there. It is the abode of the saints. 
The overcomers find entrance here. The fearful or 
cowards, those who did not fight the good fight of faith 
in order to overcome, are left outside of the city. 
‘*Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may 
have the right to come to the tree of life, and may enter 
in by the gates into the city. Without are the dogs, 
and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, 
and the idolaters, and every one that loveth and maketh 
a lie.’’ ‘*And there shall in no wise enter into it any- 
thing unclean.’’* O God, may there be no power in 
sin to keep us out of that city, to blind our eyes so that 
we should miss that beatific vision and share in the life 
of the redeemed! Keep us clean and pure and holy, 
truthful, trusting and believing. 


Our attention is directed to the magnitude of this new 
city: ‘*‘And he that spake with me had for a meastre a 
golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, 
and the walls thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, 
and the length thereof is as great as the breadth; and 
he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand fur- 
longs; the length, the breadth and the height thereof 


*'2 Tim. 3: 16° 2.Pet. 1:20, 21: Rev. 21:24; 22:14. 
* Rey. 21:8. * Rev. 22: 14, 15. 


THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 197 


are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, a hundred 
and forty and four cubits.’’™ How small, puny and in- 
significant earthly cities are in contrast with this city of 
God! The old Jerusalem was thirty-three stadia; the 
New Jerusalem is forty-eight hundred. Nineveh was 
four hundred, and Babylon four hundred and eighty. 
Oh, how large and how perfect a place is that 
city! There will be room for all who desire to enter. 
The earth was not large enough to receive the Christ- 
Child,” but heaven will not close its doors to those who 
truly desire to enter and who choose the Christ as their 
Saviour, having washed their robes in the blood of the 
Lamb. 


Nor should we overlook the fact that within that city 
just as within that new abode for the righteous there was 
a new sphere of life—the holy city, so within that new 
city there are New Conditions of Life for the Redeemed. 
Let us look at the inspired description of these new con- 
ditions of life. 

In the first place, God has His home, His dwelling- 
place in that city. ‘‘And I heard a great voice out of the 
throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, 
and he shall dwell with them and they shall be his peo- 
ples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their 
God.’’* It is true that God, even now, dwells in the 
heart of His people by faith: ‘‘If a man love me he will 
keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we 
will come unto him and make our abode with him.’’” 
But what will it be to be in the very presence of God 
Himself and to have Him as our constant Companion, 


“Rev. 21: 15-17. STuke 2:7. 
Pt Rey, 21:3: * Tohn 14: 23. 


198 AFTER DEATH—WHAT THEN? 


to tabernacle with us, live with us, dwell with us? And 
we shall have been so changed and conformed into His 
» image that we shall be fit to have the divine Guest with 
us. Think of what it will mean to have uninterrupted 
communion with God! 


In the next place we note that there will be a cessation 
of the things that characterized this earth-life and that 
brought sorrow and heartache: ‘‘And God shall wipe 
away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no 
more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor 
pain any more: the first [former] things are passed 
away. And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, 
I make all things new. . . . And there shall be no 
night there . . . nor shall there be curse any 
more.’’* Surely this is a happy state even if judged 
only by these negatives. 


But there is also the bringing in of that which is new: 
there is the tree of life, the throne of God,” a new serv- 
ice,” a new light.” The tree of life we have missed since 
the second and third chapters of Genesis. Nowhere in 
the Bible between the beginning of Genesis and here in 
Revelation do we find it. It was a merey of God that 
He kept man from eating of that tree and thus living 
forever in a sinful state. God had something better in 
store for man than that. Here is the tree of life of 
which a man may now eat and, in a glorified, sinless 
state, live forever. Here is a city through whose streets 
no hearse creeps slowly with its burden to the tomb, the 
green fields of which are never ripped open to receive 


® Rev. he 53 22:3-5. ® Rev. 22:2. 
Rev. 22: 3. * Rev: 215.23. 


THE FINAL ABODE OF THE RIGHTEOUS 199 


the dead. The name of widow and orphan is not known 
there. The inhabitants never say, ‘‘I am sick.’?’ They 
hunger no more, nor is there sighing.and weeping. None 
in that country shall ever tire; no sickness shall pale the 
cheek nor pain cause the limbs to shiver. All is eternal 
youth there. Nor is there any night” to fear and dread. 
What this means only the suffering, timid and fearful 
can imagine. 

‘‘T am content that I have seen the city; and without 
weariness will I go nearer to it; not all my life long will 
I suffer its bright golden gates to disappear from my 
sight.’’ 


The Homeland! O the Homeland! The land of the free- 
born! 

There’s no night in the Homeland, but aye the fadeless 
morn; 

I’m sighing for the Homeland, my heart is aching here; 

There is no pain in the H omeland to which I’m drawing 
near. 


My Lord is in the Homeland, with angels bright and fair; 

There’s no sin in the Homeland, and no temptation there ; 

The music of the Homeland is ringing in my ears; 

And when I think of the Homeland my eyes are filled 
with tears. 


My loved ones in the Homeland are waiting me to come, 
Where neither death nor sorrow invades their holy home; 
O dear, dear native Country! O rest and peace above! 
Christ bring us all to the Homeland of Thy redeeming 
love. 
@ Rev. 21: 25. 


Printed in the United States of America 


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